


What Makes a Man?

by LucyEvans11



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Accidents, Adorable Fluff, Amanda is hard to please, Android Gavin Reed, Android death, Canon-Typical Violence, Car Accidents, Car Chases, Chloe I told you so, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Elijah Kamski Being an Asshole, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Failed Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Fire, Gavin and Nines Housemates, Good Dog Sumo (Detroit: Become Human), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Memory Loss, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Secret Android Gavin, Slow Burn, Swearing, Tragic Accident, Violence, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, android destruction, high expectations, it's a long story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:28:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 55,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21564553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucyEvans11/pseuds/LucyEvans11
Summary: Nines has been assigned to Detective Reed for a while now. He does his best to assist him but his partner is becoming more and more reckless. Making him step in more and risk his own safety. He is caught in the balancing act of supporting his human and trying to live up to Amanda's high standards. Nines knows he can handle it if he allows only the small moments of software instability. Swearing to himself never to become a deviant like his predecessor before him.But as one pursuit goes disastrously wrong, Nines is faced with a choice. To continue being the golden boy of CyberLife and keep Amanda happy, or to uncover a conspiracy that will change his relationship with Detective Reed forever?
Relationships: Hank Anderson/Connor, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 38
Kudos: 347





	1. Chapter 1

“Detective I really wish you would be more careful.” Nines sighed as he watched Gavin bandage up his hand.

“That punk had it coming.” Gavin muttered, not even looking up to Nines.

“That ‘punk’ had a knife.” He said flatly. “You could of gotten seriously injured. Maybe even fatally.”

“Yeah well…” He huffed. Looking down at his hand. “I had your plastic ass with me.” the softer tone those final words were spoken caused the edge of Nines mouth to twitch. He had to stop himself from smiling. 

“It is my duty to assist you in your investigations.” He responded in his formal tone. “Hard to assist you if you are in a hospital.”

“I know I can handle myself in a fight. Though…” he dropped his voice. “You made sure he didn’t stab me.”

“Reed! Office Now!” Fowler’s voice interrupted the moment. Nines quickly scanned Gavin. His heart rate was slightly elevated. Causes: Hand Injury and stress. Gavin groaned as he lent back on his chair. He knew he was going to get yelled at. He had heard it many times before. This time would be no different. Nines knew these kind of meetings should take 5 minutes possibly, though Gavin always had a habit of arguing and dragging it out. Hearing a growl Gavin pulled himself up from his chair. Muttering as he shoved his hands inside his pockets. Only to recoil the bandaged one with a curse. Nines watched him stalk over to the main office. Gavin slamming the door behind him and slouching in the seat. Arms folded as he sulked. Fowler started to speak. He could spend time zooming in and lip reading the conversation but he knew that meeting is all Gavin would rant about for the foreseeable future. So no need to waste his time there. He decided to wait by his desk and send off his own report. Closing his eyes as the light on his temple changed from blue to orange.

***

Nines opened his eyes as he found himself in the Zen Garden. the sun was shining in a clear blue sky. the plants vibrant in the sunlight. Peaceful and perfect. Exactly as it was designed to be. He scanned the garden as he searched for Amanda. He soon located her sitting on a bench swing near the centre of the garden. She seemed to be gazing off at the sky. He walked around the paved paths as he made his way to the centre. She looked round as she heard him approach.

“RK900. I’m glad to see you.” Amanda’s voice never gave away her emotions. She was of course programmed like that. Something Nines appreciated.

“I am here to report.” He said bluntly. Unlike his counterpart, he had no time for small talk with Amanda.

“Very good RK900.” She nodded to him. Reclining in the seat as she waited for him. Nines stood in front of her, standing to attention.

“I have been working alongside Detective Reed for over a year now. Though his general mood and reactions towards me have changed over this past year. He still acts recklessly and puts his life in danger.”

“We are aware of Detective Reed’s recklessness, that is why you have been stationed with him. CyberLife is using research from you and RK800 to assess humans reactions when they have to treat an android with more professionalism. How does he treat you?” Amanda asked, tilting her head to one side. Nines had to think how to phrase his reply.

“Detective Reed is starting, in his own way, to show gratitude towards my assistance that has resulted in positive outcomes. He is not as easy to read as other humans but I do understand him mannerisms.” Nines replied. Not moving from his stance, not looking down to Amanda. He couldn’t give off any other aura than the one expected of him. Amanda nodded in acknowledgement.

“So he is behaving in a more positive way towards you?” She asked, her eyes meeting his. Nines could feel the tension.

“Yes. From when I was first stationed here to to current day, our relationship has improved. He responds to me in a more positive way.” Nines answered, not breaking eye contact with Amanda.

“I get the sense you are concealing something from me RK900.” Amanda watched him.

“I have answered your questions with all relevant information.” Nines responded quickly. Her look held before she stood up. Slowly circling him.

“You know what happened to RK800.” Her tone accusing. “He let human culture and conventions corrupt him. Betraying us in the process. That is why we have reassigned him. We are using his reports to gauge how a human who is more…” Her tone shifted to a more venomous one. “...Accepting of an android partner, on many levels.” She walked back into his vision. “You are his superior and are above such a malfunction.” Nines could see clouds starting to form in the sky. “I do not expect you to display the same deviant behaviour of your predecessor.”

“I will stay focused on my mission. I will hold nothing back from Cyberlife.” Nines spoke quickly. Amanda stopped in front of him.

“Understood.” She studied him. “Has Detective Reed’s behaviour become more or less reckless since you have been stationed with him?”

“Calculating.” Nines quickly flicked back over his reports. Calculating how many times Gavin had made questionable decisions or actions, how many times he had sustained injuries, then organising the data into a timeline. Then checking if the case resulted in a success or failure. “Detective Reed has shown an increase in reckless behaviour since I have been assigned to him. He acts more aggressive and as a result his risks are paying off. Since I have been stationed with him, he has sustained less injuries and yielded a higher success rate with his cases.”

“So he acts more reckless… yet sustains less injuries.” Amanda clarified.

“Correct.” Nines confirmed. Amanda’s eyes narrowed at him.

“Could you explain how someone who acts with less regard for his life has sustained less damage over time?” She spoke coldly. He quickly ran another search through his reports.

“I have intervened on Detective Reeds behalf. My actions and intervention has prevented 32% of minor in juries, 73% of major injuries and 100% of fatal injuries.” His voice faltered for a moment.

“Is Detective Reed using you as a shield?” Amanda was not impressed.

“I read the situation, calculate all possible outcomes and act on the scenario which yield the best results. the routes with more chance of success coincide with Detective Reed sustaining no or minimal injury.” Nines defended himself. Amanda gave him a final look up and down before turning to walk away.

“Going forwards RK900, I want you to consider the cause of his increased reckless behaviour. Are there external factors or…” She glanced back to him. “Does he hope that you will prevent him from coming to serious harm?”

***

Nines opened his eyes. Her last words had unsettled him. He ran a system check, his stress was higher than normal. He knew that Gavin was attached to him. He remembered the last time he was seriously injured, Gavin nearly screamed the precinct down when someone offhandedly suggested just replacing him. A repair form was quickly given to Gavin to complete. He felt it was an odd request at the time, a human requesting repairs over a new model. Though the scenario was not unheard of. He had seen Lieutenant Anderson act similar around RK800. Where Lieutenant Anderson carried in RK800, right leg almost completely destroyed and dripping thirium all over the floor. He was quickly passed the form and sat there is silence as RK800 apologised to him. Gavin had far less self restraint and the form was handed to him quickly to avoid a bigger scene. Seeing how distressed his human had become over his injury and possible replacement caused a number a questions. Unfortunately many questions that remained unanswered. He knew better than to approach Amanda with his queries after observing her contempt for RK800s actions and current relationship. A relationship that was slowly bearing similarities to his own situation. It had taken him many observations and this latest experience to understand how RK800 believed he was more than just an android. Why he had developed deviant behaviour and why his duty to his human extended outside of his professional duty. Maybe that’s why Amanda’s words had caused him such discomfort, because they were too close to the truth. the evidence was building up slowly and he had nothing to refute it. He looked over to the glass office. As predicted Gavin was standing up and seemed to be in a shouting match with the Fowler.

“Fucking hell.” Lieutenant Anderson sighed rather loudly. Observing the same scene as Nines. “He’s at it again.”

“Lieutenant, why does Detective Reed always seem so angry?” RK800 asked looking up to him.

“How the hell should I know? He’s always been like that.” He started to walk to the staff area. Probably to retrieve a drink. RK800 stood by his desk, standing at ease next to the desk. Nines debated approaching RK800 and querying his relationship with his human, a subtle way he could compare notes, but that would be too obvious. RK800 would ask questions and he wasn’t the best at keeping secrets. The truth being he feared Lieutenant Anderson’s reaction more regarding his enquiries. RK800 may be naive enough to believe he was just curious, but the other could start connecting the dots and make his own conclusions. Nines decided just to observe from Gavin’s desk. He soon saw the Lieutenant return with a mug and a glass of water. Curiously Nines watched as he handed the glass of water to RK800. He had no way to consume such liquid, why would he request it? RK800 watched the argument going on in the glass box.

“It seems Detective Reed has sustained another injury.” RK800 reported. “From the type of injury, it looks like the weapon was a knife.”

“Connor…” Lieutenant Anderson dropped down into his seat. “We have a possible kidnapping to investigate. Can we please focus on stuff that is our problem?” He started to pull up reports on his computer.

“Yes. I’m sorry Lieutenant.” He looked over towards Nines, their eyes meeting. “I shall allow RK900 to worry about Detective Reed.” Lieutenant Anderson looked over his shoulder at Nines. Giving him a look up and down. Nines focused on giving nothing away in his body language.

“If that thing can worry.” Lieutenant Anderson muttered as he looked back to his screen. RK800 displayed distress in his face at the comment.

“RK900 is my superior model. I am sure he is easily capable of making the same advancements and growth I have accomplished.” RK800 sounded convinced. Though the look he exchanged with his human told Nines everything he needed to know. RK800 backed down and sat opposite Lieutenant Anderson and started going through the new case they had been given. He felt almost challenged not to be shown up by his predecessor. He could develop if he wanted to, but he had a job and a duty he needed to focus on. He would not fall prey to the same traps as RK800.

“Tincan! You going into standby mode or something?!” Gavin’s voice snapped him to attention. “Boss says I have to take tomorrow off to rest up. So lucky you, you get to drive me home.” He tossed his keys at Nines. He caught them without any problem. A smirk crossing Gavin’s face. “You know what else this means?” Nines sighed.

“It means I shall be waiting on your beck and call until you have recovered.” He couldn’t help the side of his mouth tugged into a smile. Gavin immediately saw the smile, fighting a blush.

“You shouldn’t be happy about this.” He muttered in a hushed tone. “Why are you happy?”

“I will be able to look after you.” Nines replied. “I also know you can’t get yourself into too much trouble while you are at home.”

“Yeah right.” He huffed, trying to shove his hands into his pockets. Gritting teeth as Nines could tell he’d forgotten he was still injured.

“After you Detective.” Nines offered as he took a step back. Gavin gave him a weird look, a quick glare around the room. Asserting himself before he started to walk out with pride. Nines following him out. Knowing he would get the full explanation of that meeting as he drove home.


	2. Chapter 2

“I caught the punk we were after! I knocked him out and cuffed him. Slinging him in the back of the van. Then Fowler drags me into his fucking office to lecture me about public image!” Gavin ranted the second the door closed. Nines was pretty sure that people in the nearby area would still be able to hear them and had expected Gavin to wait until they were out of the car park before going off.

“I’m sure I’ve mentioned public image before on cases.” Nines commented. He focused on reversing out of the parking spot.

“It’s better the public fears us.” He huffed in his seat. “They should be fucking terrified about committing crimes. We’ll hunt them down.”

“Us? We?” Nines parroted back to him. “Are you speaking of the police department as a whole or-”

“I’m talking about you!” Gavin snapped at him. Nines was caught a little off guard by the volume, he kept control of the car as they started to leave. “Not only am I a fucking terrifying force to deal with. I have the best android CyberLife has built to date as my backup.” Nines felt something inside him warm a little.

“I am glad you feel that way.” Nines replied. “I appreciate you take pride in our partnership.” They reached the main road and Nines plotted the most direct route to Gavin’s house.

“Don’t get any big ideas. You aren’t gonna become better at my job than me!” Gavin said quickly as he turned to look at his injured hand. “Do you know how long this should take to heal up?” Nine’s circle flashed orange as he completed the quick search.

“As you didn’t let me examine you hand, a minor cut as the one suspected should heal over the next 3 to 7 days.” Nines reported.

“Good. I should be back in action soon.” Gavin relaxed. “I’m guessing though you aren’t going to be happy if we go back on the street for mission before I’m healed.”

“However, you would not be able to stop me filing an injury report that recommends a 7 day break from field work, as protocol dictates.”

“Why do you always have to kill my fun?” Gavin whined.

“I will stop ‘killing your fun’ when you start to look after yourself. You’re becoming more reckless.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No I’m not!

“Would you like to see the statistics Detective?” Nines couldn’t stop a small smirk.

“Fuck the statistics!” Gavin snapped. “I’m not getting more reckless because I’m not getting that injured. I know my limits.”

“The reason you are not sustaining injuries in correlation to your behaviour is due to my intervention.” Nines said calmly. He was expecting a snap back or argument from Gavin. He waited for him to speak. Getting a little concerned by lack of reply he glanced to him. Gavin was looking over his bandaged hand thinking over something. Nines wasn’t sure if he’d upset him or not. “No matter what happens Detective, I will always intervene to stop you from coming to serious harm.” Gavin seemed to respond by zipping up his jacket. He sulked back in his seat and pulled his hood up. A clear enough sign that he was done talking to him. Nines recognised it and they completed the rest of the drive home in silence.

***

The afternoon and evening had been rather quiet. Gavin had sulked off to his room without a word. Nines did check in on him and found him curled up in his bed on his phone. Tapping away at some sort of game. If it kept his mind off of work Nines was more than happy to let him keep tapping away. He took the chance to tidy up Gavin’s small and scruffy apartment. He knew he wasn’t designed for these menial tasks. It just kept him busy in the downtime. It also helped him understand his partner a lot better. He never tidied up too much. He had learnt that the hard way. Gavin was terrible at finding things but even through the mess he knew where his most important things were. The doorbell rang in the evening. 

“Your dinner has arrived.” Nines said as he walked round from the kitchen counter. There was no response from the bedroom. He sighed softly and approached the door. Opening it to see a another Android standing there. The smaller model smiled and handed him the pizza. Nines accepted it and nodded, they nodded in recognition and turned to leave. He was a little thankful Gavin had not responded. Given the mood he had been in, he was sure he would of passed some derogatory comment towards the android. He carried the pizza box into the living room. Nines had debated ordering it given his humans behaviour, but he did help close a rather important case today. As it was his custom he had ordered him a full meat pizza with extra cheese. He didn’t want to think over how many calories existed in the monstrosity he had purchased. All that mattered for now is that his human ate and didn’t over exert himself. He grimaced as he opened the box. Scanning it quickly to ensure it was cooked properly and it wouldn’t make his human sick. Satisfied the pizza wouldn’t outright kill Gavin he started to plate it up. He knew Gavin would eat it straight from the box but Nines had standards. He heard a door open as he plated up.

“You ordered pizza?” A small voice said. Nines could detect Gavin was standing in the doorway of his room.

“Is this not your ‘successful mission’ ritual?” he asked trying to keep a neutral voice.

“Well yeah… I just thought…” he huffed. “Never mind.” he walked over to the counter.

“I believe this is your traditional order.” Nines slid the plate across the counter towards him. He watched Gavin slowly approach to look at the pizza. He paused for a moment as he stared. Nines waited a few moments, as it was not unusual for Gavin to take his time. He seemed to reach some conclusion as he picked up the plate and sulked over to the sofa. Grabbing the remote he turned on the tv. A rather inefficient way to use the tv as Nines had a direct link to it, but it made Gavin happy. He started flicking through the channels and soon found that nights news report.

‘The top story on the news tonight at 10. A drug ring believed to be one of the biggest in Detroit has finally been exposed. This group is suspected to be a big supplier of the dangerous and infamous drug known as Red Ice. Earlier today a ringleader was chased through the city and apprehended by the DPD.’ The reporter read out as clips were played across the screen. Nines walked over to stand behind the sofa to watch the report. He could tell Gavin was smirking as he watched. The clips showed the pursuit he and Gavin had been part of. Gavin moved quickly around onlookers, jumping expertly over trash cans and other obstacles thrown in his way by their target. The camera focused mostly on the Detective, but Nines could spot himself in the recordings just a few feet behind him. Keeping up with the chase and not losing any ground.

“Can you record this report? I want to save it to watch later when those jerks tell me I can’t do my job.” Gavin asked, looking round with a smug grin.

“I can record it.” Nines nodded as he started to interface with the tv. Recording the current channel. The coverage of the chase was very impressive, though rather easy to obtain. Drones owned by the news station had to compete with domestic androids that could start recording at a moments notice if requested. Of course there was only a long distance drone in view of the actual arrest and fight. It tried to zoom in and showed Gavin fighting with the suspect. The knife being drawn and him being injured. Nines quickly stepping in to deflect a more deadly stab to his partner. The suspect tried to fight Nines but was vastly outmatched by the superior android.  
“As you can see CyberLifes new branch on androids, the RK900 units are currently under trial are providing expert assistance to our officers.” The voice spoke over the fight. Nines felt a smile tug at his mouth. After some sparring Gavin had managed to recover and delivered a very solid right hook to the jaw. Knocking the target to the ground. He quickly pounced on him, pulling out his cuffs. The target was neutralised and other officers soon reached the scene. The subject was hauled away and thrown into the back of a police van. A successful job well done. Gavin slowly munched his way through his pizza. It seemed his mood had improved. Nines decided it was best to let him watch tv. He set himself an alarm for 2am. He left Gavin on the sofa as he headed through to a small side room. 

The room dubbed his ‘bedroom’ although he didn’t need a bed, was a rather small side room. He guessed it was supposed to be an office or study. When he had been assigned to Gavin, it had just been a store room. Gavin had since moved his stuff out of the small room to give Nines his space. Nines didn’t really need too much. A small fridge to store extra bags of thirium. A box to house his repair kit and spare parts should he get too roughed up in the field. Since he had moved in Gavin had given him a few ‘spare’ items. He knows that Gavin had bought them for him as they were not part of the apartments inventory when he arrived. He had a wardrobe that he was able to hang up his jackets. A few different jackets hung up there currently. He shrugged off his white work jacket and placed it on a coat hanger. To the side of it a chest of drawers to store other items of clothing. Trousers, jumpers, shirts, socks all things he had found in the draws. He had asked Gavin about them. His reason was that he didn’t want to feel he was always at work, so he bought him some more casual clothes for off the clock. Though the pair of pajamas were not as easily excused. He had of course, graciously accepted the gifts. It was the least he could do when Gavin had clearly gone out of his way for him. He knew that RK800 greatly appreciated having his own wider wardrobe. They had crossed paths where Lieutenant Anderson and RK800 on weekends when they had all been off duty. RK800 happily following the older Lieutenant wearing some t-shirt bearing the branding of a television show. He showed off his deviancy so readily. He truly was a lost cause. Nines had to uphold CyberLifes reputation and standards and he was not going to let his appearance be his downfall. Though he did change out of his work clothes. As he would not be working tomorrow, he could put them in the wash and get them ready for the next time he was. He changed into a plain dark blue jumper and a pair of smart black trousers. He moved to a chair that rested against the back wall. This was where he slept, it was small and practical. He took a seat and started to review Amanda’s words:

“I get the sense you are concealing something from me RK900.”

“I do not expect you to display the same deviant behaviour of your predecessor.”

“Is Detective Reed using you as a shield?”

“Does he hope that you will prevent him from coming to serious harm?”

He was trying to make sense of his position with her. His mission was to assist Detective Reed. He was supposed to stay professional and avoid falling victim to human emotions. He was designed to be more distant than RK800 to assist in that detachment. Countering that, logic dictated that becoming more human to get along with Gavin had yielded less verbal abuse and a higher capture success rate with them working together. Though he kept a restraint on how ‘human’ he became. Analysing Gavin’s behaviour, the idea of him purposely putting himself in harm's way so he could be saved seemed out of character. Him taking more risks because he trusted Nines would be able to cover him was completely different. He looked around the small room. He noted down all the things Gavin had done for him in the run up to now. This room was proof of that. Despite all the shouting and name calling, Nines knew that Gavin was showing respect and possibly affection to him. He felt something in his system jump as he pondered Gavin being affectionate towards him. He could feel an error of pride bubble up a little and a small warming sensation in his chest. He quickly had to squash the reactions, he had already exhibited too much deviancy today and now he needed to purge his systems. Ensuring the errors went down to an acceptable level. This could take a while so he closed his eyes and relaxed.

***

His internal alarm went off at 2am as planned. Nines slowly opened his eyes as they started to adjust to the darkness. The world around him was mostly still, the only sound he could hear was the slightly muffled voices on the tv from the other room. Once his eyes had adjusted he slowly stood up. Brushing himself down a little he exited his small room.

The living room was dark, the only illumination coming from the tv. He walked slowly round the room to check on Gavin. As he suspected he laid out fast asleep on the sofa. Nines started a quick scan to gauge how deep a sleep he was in. He was in a deep sleep which meant the risk of him waking up was around 12% given his planned action. He walked over to the sleeping detective. Moving the empty plate from his lap and placing it on the table. He crouched down and slowly and gently moved an arm around his back, the other under his legs by his knees. Making sure he had a good hold on him, he slowly started to lift him up. Gavin grumbled a little in his sleep and curled against him. Nines smiled as this was almost the time his human was the most docile. He carried him through the living area and over to his bedroom. He managed to get the bedroom door open without too much difficulty and carried Gavin through.

The bedroom was dimly lit and rather big, though the fact it was very cluttered gave the impression it was a lot smaller than it actually was. He had all the basic necessities, wardrobes, chests of drawers, a large desk with a cork-board. Nines navigated the small room to reach the double bed he had at the end of the room. He had inquired why a double as he didn’t see another in residence. Gavin had said it was for when he brought people home. Nines hadn’t asked any more on the subject. Luckily for him Gavin never made his bed. His covers were scrunched up to one side, meaning it would be a lot easier to tuck him in without waking him. Gavin mumbled something in his sleep as Nines walked to the side of his bed. Gently lowering him onto the mattress. Breathing a small sigh of relief as Gavin curled round into his pillow. He reached over to grab the edge of the covers. He gently lifted them over his slumbering human. Ensuring he was suitable covered by the blanket, Nines didn’t know why he lingered a little longer. Maybe it was the peaceful expression on the detectives usually scowling face. Maybe it was because it was pleasant seeing him at peace like this. He shook away the thoughts as he had the rest of the living area to tidy. He turned and quickly made his exit. Turning off the TV remotely as he walked back to his room. Late night cleaning could wake Gavin so he delegated time tomorrow morning to tidying up the apartment. Once that was scheduled in, there was nothing left to do apart from wait until morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just had to say thank you so much to everyone for the Kudos! They really have made me feel so happy!
> 
> I hope you continue to enjoy the story!


	3. Chapter 3

Morning rolled around as the sun crept into the small side room. Sensing the increase on light around him Nines’ systems started to boot up. As he came online he started his normal morning routine. He ran diagnostics on his systems and current state. The progress bar slowly fill in front of him. A small box appearing in the bottom corner of his vision. All the individual checks scrolled by, each one flashing as they were completed. As the scan continued, he loaded up that days schedule. The morning tidy was there from last night. He would start out with that. Given Gavin’s current leave from work due to his injury, he would not be attending the precinct that day. He had promised his partner he would look after him as he had one hand currently in need of recovery time. Given the lack of other activities he loaded up the shopping list he had been making over the last few days. As they had the time they could go out and purchase the few items. He searched for locations that supplied all the items needed, following that he factored in Gavin’s injury. Though it didn’t directly impact his mobility, but he had noticed when Gavin was injured he became far more aggressive towards other people. Especially those who tried to show sympathy regarding the injury. Nines didn’t want another fist fight on his hands so avoided any of the big shopping areas. By a stroke of fortune, there was a small gas station with a convenience store that had everything they required in stock. The fresh air may also do the grumpy detective some good. As he plotted the trip out, the bar that was filling up across the screen reached completion. He closed the calendar and reviewed the report. He had only sustained minor damage in the scuffle yesterday but it was negligible. Nothing to concern himself about. He reviewed his conscious state and how much software interference was resting within his logical processing. He had been doing well to keep it monitored. The interference amount was currently considered low risk, this meant he would be able to continue in his role, responsibility and his mission with only minor interference. This was acceptable. The boxes closed down as he opened his eyes. Standing up slowly he headed out to get on with the day.

***

He had made great progress in tidying up from the night before. He had disposed of the pizza box and washed up the plate. He was in the middle of loading the washing machine when the door leading to Gavin’s room slowly opened. Nines looked across to see the detective standing and staring at him.

“Good morning Detective.” Nines greeted him. Gavin huffed at him.

“Morning.” He grumbled as he sulked over to the kitchen area. “And it’s Reed when I’m off duty.” Nines noted it down. He turned back to the washing machine and finished loading it. Closing the door and starting to set the timer. He heard a clatter of pans followed by swearing. He glanced over to see Gavin muttering about his injured hand, trying to pick up the frying pan with his non-dominant hand. This was rather amusing to watch. Nines finished programming the washing machine and added the washing powder. He was going to give Gavin the benefit of the doubt and let him be independent. Not wishing to interfere with his activities more than he needed to. Nines pressed start and collected the now empty hamper and took it to the side. Setting it down in the corner. Glancing back over as Gavin he watched him struggle in the kitchen. Gavin had managed to get the hob on and had a frying pan heating up. He was trying to break open some eggs, tapping them on the side of the pan and managing to crack it successfully. Though watching him realise he needed two hands to actually open the egg was a small treat. His stubbornness coming through as he carefully used his injured hand to successfully drop the egg into the frying pan. There was a satisfying crackle as the egg hit the hot pan. Nines felt a small amount of joy as he watched a confident smirk cross Gavin’s face as he went for the second egg.

“Do you have any plans for the day Reed?” he asked.

“Watch tv.” He started on the second egg. “Play games.” he continued working on his breakfast, ducking down to look in the fridge. Pulling out a pack of bacon.

“I’m glad you are taking this day to recover.” Nines said as he started to check the bathroom. Standing at the doorway he did a scan searching for anything that may run out soon.

“I don’t want you writing up a report to make me stuck at my desk.” Gavin called across.

“I would only do it for your own good.” Nines replied, he noted down that nothing needed replacing in the bathroom. He turned and moved onto the kitchen. Walking over he had to slid past Gavin. Gavin didn’t bristle as he brushed past him which was a good sign. He started to check the cupboards.

“I’m sure you enjoy making my life hell at times.” Gavin grumbled as he continued is fry up.

“That would be against my programming.” Nines checked the food stocks. “I am here to assist you and I have deduced caring for your emotional side alongside your physical side will yield more successful outcomes.” Gavin looked over to him.

“So you are just being nice to me because you think it will make me perform better?” He said a little flatly. Nines could hear the slight hurt in his voice. He looked over to meet his eyes.

“I also gain enjoyment seeing you happy. It makes our time together more pleasant.” He said softly. Gavin’s cheeks went a little red as he quickly turned away to stare at the frying-pan in front of him. Turning over the bacon and starting to plate up his meal. Nines didn’t need to scan him to know his heart rate had just increased by his answer. Gavin had successfully managed to make himself breakfast and quickly took the plate over to the sofa. The remote resting on the arm so Gavin could pick it up after he put his plate down. Nines had made sure the remote was easy for him to find as he remembered the last time the remote was deemed ‘missing’. Gavin nearly tipped the entire room upside down to find it. He had never experienced his human that stressed when there was no need for it. He offered to turn on the tv himself and change the channel, but he was shot down for even suggesting it. Luckily a quick scan on the room revealed its location and Gavin had calmed down. Settling down on the sofa to watch another senseless tv program. Nines watched the screen flick on and Gavin start to channel surf. He hovered around the kitchen, deciding next to crouch down to check the fridge.

“Any reason you are going through my cupboards?” Gavin asked. Nines straightened up and looked across to Gavin. He was leaning over the side of the sofa watching him.

“I am planning a trip out to replenish your inventory.” He said looking across to him. “I was hoping you would accompany me.”

“Now you are asking to spend time with me?” Gavin smirked, rolling back round to face the tv. “You scared about going outside alone?”

“Not at all.” Nines smiled. “I would find it difficult to look after you if you did not accompany me.”

“Yeah, cause you’d get yourself in trouble without me.” Gavin puffed out his chest a little.

“I would do.” Nines agreed with him. He knew he was perfectly capable of protecting himself. But Gavin was easier to handle when he was in a good mood. So it couldn’t really hurt to make him feel better. He ignored the rouge data that seemed to run by him, cataloging that to be sorted out later. He continued his inventory checking uninterrupted as Gavin worked his way through his breakfast. Nines had wondered how Gavin was able to eat seemingly whatever he wanted but never seemed to put on weight. He guessed the exercise he got chasing down criminals balanced out what he ate. Once he completed the inventory he retreated to his room. No need to bother Gavin further until he had finished eating. As he walked across the room he paused behind the sofa. “I would appreciate you notifying me when you have finished eating and are ready to go.”

“I’ll let you know.” Gavin waved it off. Nines nodded and examined the food left on the plate. By his estimations, it shouldn’t take longer than a further 10 minuets for him to complete breakfast. Give him 5 minuets to take his plate to the kitchen and tidy up. He glanced to the clock. He would set his alarm for 25 minuets time. No doubt he would argue to finish the television program he was watching. He turned and headed back to his room to wait it out. He could report to Amanda to kill some time. Entering his room, he quickly located his seat and closed his eyes.

***

The Zen Garden was perfect as usual. The sun was quite low currently, possibly a reflection of the time of day? He didn’t normally make morning reports. Due to the nature of his job, afternoon and evening reports were far more expected. He looked around the garden to search for Amanda. He located her caring for the roses growing in the garden. He slowly started to make his way over to her. She looked over her shoulder to Nines as he got closer.

“RK900. You are checking in early.” She commented with a level of suspicion. Nines picking up her tone immediately needed to confirm he had reason for this abnormal behaviour.

“Yes. Detective Reed is taking a day off to recover from his injury he sustained.” He spoke quickly. Studying Amanda’s reaction to his words. She paused for a moment and nodded.

“I see you are attempting to remedy his reckless behaviour by placing him in unfavourable situations. How is he taking the day off?” She asked turning back to her roses.

“He has accepted the day off. Though I did resort to strong-arming him into taking today off.” Nines explained. “I suggested I could file an official report which would of locked Detective Reed to his desk for at least a week.”

“Is that protocol for your situation?” Her voice gave nothing away. Nines took a moment to review the protocols regarding filing injury reports.

“If the injury had been more severe and required a longer recovery period, I would of followed protocol regardless of Detective Reed’s feelings on the situation. From what he advised of his injury, I ran a diagnostic and-”

“From what he advised?” Amanda queried, looking back to Nines and meeting his eyes. “You did not perform an examination yourself?”

“Detective Reed has always proved more difficult when injured.” Nines said, frustration creeping into his voice as he looked at the floor. “I am perfectly capable of such analysis and treatment, yet he is so secretive around his injuries.” 

“Has he given you a reason for this?” Amanda asked, her tone giving nothing away.

“He has not… I do not feel he trusts me enough to divulge such reasoning.” Nines was trying to control his tone and expression, but acknowledging that Gavin didn’t trust him on some level caused a flurry of errors in his system. Errors in his code that manifested as the emotional responses identified as distress and anger on a quick examination. He tried to contain them, but they were making his voice shake and his expression change without his permission. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder. His systems paused.

“You know humans do not fully trust androids RK900.” Amanda’s voice soothing. “To try and believe otherwise will only cause you damage in the end. These errors you are experiencing and only temporary and are above such faults.” Nines nodded as he tried to purge his systems, but something in him couldn’t simply delete these errors. Amanda said many times humans could never trust androids, yet RK800 enjoyed a very close relationship with Lieutenant Anderson. He forced the errors and codes into a file. Quarantining them for now. He would review it away from Amanda, away from Gavin. He knew something didn’t add up between her words and his observations, but now was not the time. After they had been moved he felt his system return back to acceptable levels He took a few deep breaths to restabilise his breathing and his ‘heart rate’ to normal levels. Slowly bringing himself to look up to Amanda. Her face full of concern. She gently moved her hand up to his cheek. Her touch causing a number of other errors and mixed signals. These errors were diagnosed as… comforting. She spoke again as she gently stroked her thumb across his cheek. “I did not acknowledge such errors existed within your predecessor. Giving him no freedom to express his concerns, this build of of erroneous code with no outlet caused his breakdown and deviancy. I do not want you to experience the same levels of emotional distress that could cause you to become permanently damaged. Resulting in you to become a deviant.” Her tone growing cold as she approached the final word.

“I will not go deviant.” Nines said with determination. His eyes met her, trying to show her he was stronger than RK800. “I am far stronger than he was and will not fall prey to such inadequacies.” He was the superior model. He would not betray her. She studied his expression for a few moments.

“I know you will not.” She said softly. She slowly pulled her hand away and straightened up. Nines mirrored her posture. “If you start to have issues with these errors. Inform me and we can investigate ways we can manage the interference.”

“Yes.” Nines nodded to her.

“Do you have anything else to report?” She asked, tilting her head.

“No. Nothing else. I called in early to explain in advance why you will not receive an update this evening.” He said, keeping his eyes forwards as he stood to attention.

“Understood. You advanced warning is appreciated RK900.” She nodded, slowly turning back to her roses. “You are still to observe the Detective and try to deduce why he has grown more reckless. This is important for many reasons. Though the primary one is his reckless actions could cause your own destruction.”

***

Nines opened his eyes and found himself back in his small room. He lent forwards and ran a hand through his hair. It felt like he had finally released a breath he had been holding in, though such an act was impossible. He replayed the meeting over and over in his mind. What was wrong with him? Having such an… emotional and possibly deviant reaction in front of Amanda of all people. He had to analyse that erroneous code, but not now. His system was fluctuating rather erratically. He currently fear corruption as he was unable to predict if more strain could damage his systems further. He decided it would be best not to focus on it for now. He needed a distraction. He checked his internal timer for how much time he had given Gavin. There was still 8 minuets before he would check on him. He listened to the room next door. The TV was still on, he could hear voices and some dramatic music. Probably edited in to enhance the show Gavin was watching. He also heard some footsteps and odd clink. From the pitch and tone he deduced to his surprise Gavin had actually taken his things to the sink. He was expecting him to leave them on the sofa for him to collect. He heard the tap run, the tap turn off. Not long enough for him to complete the task of washing up but probably enough for a soak. Some grumbling and muttering, then footsteps, closer, closer… a knock on the door caused Nines to sit bolt upright. Quickly trying to neaten his hair.

“Tincan… you want to go out early?” Gavin asked softly.

“I have no objections.” He walked to the door quickly and opened it. Gavin was standing opposite him with his jacket already on. He didn’t expect Gavin to meet his eyes, staring at him for a moment.

“You look like shit. You feeling alright?” Gavin asked giving Nines a look up and down.

“My appearance has not changed since the lats time you saw me. I am perfectly fine.” Nines tried to say as neutral as possible. He tried to give off his always professional air.

“No you are not.” He crossed his arms. “You look stressed out. Has something spooked you?” Nines took a moment to register he must be showing weakness.

“My apologies Reed. I have been suffering from some errors in my processing stream. It has caused me to become unstable at times. Do not fear I shall work on a fix immediately.” Nines tried to keep it professional. Gavin looked down slowly.

“I didn’t know you could be scared of things.” He mumbled softly. “I thought they would of programmed you without that.”

“I am programmed to integrate with humans. I possess a logical understanding of all human emotions, how they are displayed, short and long term effects of them on human. It’s to he-” Nines began to explain. Gavin cut him off.

“So if I was scared, what would you do?” Gavin looked back up at him.

“I…” Nines paused as he had to process as the question caught him off guard. “If someone was in distress. Protocol dictates first I would attempt to remove the object causing distress. I would then analyse the most appropriate-”

“Cut the crap! That’s your textbook answer. I didn’t ask for that.” Gavin snapped at him, causing Nines to freeze mid sentence. “I asked you what you would do if I was scared of something. Me. Your human.” His tone aggressive but there were hidden complexities. Nines remembered to close his mouth as he formulated his answer. How would he help Gavin if he was scared? Though as he tried to make an answer, but two words kept repeating in his mind. ‘Your human’. He couldn’t recall Gavin ever referring to himself in such a way. I sense of ownership? Responsibility? More errors flagged up but he had to answer him.

“First… I would check to see if you were alright.” He said slowly, he focused on Gavin’s expression to gauge if he was saying the right things. “I would ask what was wrong... Then try to remove the item or person causing you discomfort.” His voice was far softer than usual. “If I am unable to do that… I would try to move you away from it. Priority to stabilise your emotions and mental state.” Gavin’s expression had softened a little as he spoke. Though he soon went to his usual pout. Looking off to one side as he crossed his arms.

“Why is it important to ‘stabilise my emotions’?” He added air quotes, repeating Nines’ wording.

“If anyone is in a high state of stress it impacts on their logical reasoning, this could cause illogical or inefficient decision making. This could long term harm of the person involved. In this case… you.” As Nines spoke, he felt himself start to calm down again. The number of errors occurring decreased slowly. Gavin looked back to him slowly.

“Alright. Next question… when your little disk thing goes red. You are stressed right?” Gavin asked. Nines’ eye widened, he didn’t realise he had been displaying his emotions so clearly. Of course Gavin would pick up on that, any human would. He quickly moved a hand to cover the light on his temple. Gavin pulled his arm away. “No point in hiding it when I’ve already seen it.”

“My apologies. I should restart my systems to purge-” Nines started.

“Bullshit! That disk has been flashing yellow and red since you opened this door You are going to tell me what the hell spooked my police grade android.” Gavin raised his voice, jabbing at Nines’ chest. His words possessive, he said ‘my android’. Nines realised why Gavin had gone through the string of logic earlier. He thought it was for emotional verification but… it also could be applied to him. That was what Gavin was implying. 

“I reported into my superior.” He said slowly. Gavin studied him for a few moments before nodding.

“And what did he want?” Gavin crossed his arms.

“I believe technically they should be referred to as a she.” Nines corrected him.

“Your boss is a chick?” He raised an eyebrow.

“She is the AI CyberLife uses to receive reports from me and RK800, but yes, as she takes a female form, she would be correct.” he explained. “I showed traces of early deviant behaviour during my latest report. I… fear repercussions.” Nines closed his eyes, expecting Gavin to have another outburst. To shout, to start screaming how he was wrong. That he was an android and couldn’t have real feelings. That he was making a big deal over nothing. He counted the seconds waiting, but the outburst… never came. Confused he slowly opened his eyes and looked to Gavin. Gavin’s body language shifted, his whole persona softened at his words. His moment of vulnerability was not being punished? He was so confused.

“Hey, it’s not like my boss is perfect.” He shrugged. “But if this bitch ever gives you shit again. You tell me okay?” Gavin said firmly. Though Nines didn’t agree with the distasteful reference to Amanda, he understood the sentiment behind it.

“I will inform you of any future incidents.” Nines nodded. Gavin sighed heavily and turned to head to the door. 

“You are my partner after all, as much as you have to look after me… I have to look after you.”

“Thank you Reed.” Nines said softly as he performed a full system check. Everything seemed to of stabilised. He smiled softly as he was back to running at an acceptable level. He reached back inside his room to pick out a coat for him to wear. Putting the item on he headed over to meet Gavin at the door. Gavin seemed quieter than normal after their exchange. Nines followed his gaze as Gavin was starting at his bandaged hand. Carefully sliding it into his pocket as he looked back to Nines.

“Well… where are we going Tincan?” His tone more teasing.

“Given the small amount of items we need to replenish, we aren’t going to go too far. We are going to visit the gas station a few blocks away. They have everything that we need.” Nines said.

“Well let’s get going. The sooner we get this errand sorted, the sooner I can go back to watching tv.” He grinned as he headed out the door.

“Indeed.” Nines smiled as he followed him.


	4. Chapter 4

Gavin walked slightly ahead of him as they headed to the gas station. His shoulders hunched up as he tried to avoid people. Luckily is seemed that the members of the public they passed got the message loud and clear. Nines observed people recognising the expression on Gavin’s face and crossing the road to avoid them. The majority of them didn’t give Nines a second look, the ones that did just glared at him. He knew why. All androids were required by law to have the blue band around their arm and the blue triangles view able from a distant. It clearly marked him as an android. Not that their looks bothered him, he did not care for their opinions. He was built to be intimidating and so looks of fear or discomfort should be taken as compliments he fulfilled his role. Amanda’s words came back reminding him that humans would never like androids and that was a fact of life. He shook it off. He wasn’t going to dwell on her words now. The only human who’s opinion mattered was Gavin’s. Even when his ‘resting bitch face’ was on in full force and he was difficult to read. As they walked along Nines struggled to not observe everything around him. His urge was to stay vigilant, act and report on and criminal activity he suspected. Gavin said he did not understand the concept of ‘Time off’. He had no need for such things but knew Gavin appreciated it. Sometimes he disliked his orders to obey humans. Gavin enforced a ‘No Work’ day on the weekends. Nines had nearly gone stir crazy doing nothing productive. Gavin had even made him sit down to play a video game. Thinking back on those days though… they were the happiest he had seen Gavin, though he also drank a lot. He seemed lucky to never be hung over. Physical contact had also increased steadily during those periods. The contact had lowered Gavin’s stress levels, so he entertained it… not that he enjoyed it… He shook his head as errors started to build up. He needed to refocus on the walk. Apart from a stray cat distracting Gavin, he stopped for a little bit before huffing and storming off. The walk being a pretty uneventful one as they reached the gas station. He was relieved to of made it to the building without incident.

Gavin pushed open the door to the gas station. A sensor above the door game a small chime to announce their entrance.

“Welcome to the store.” The android standing behind the counter greeted them. Gavin gave them a cursory glare but didn’t respond. Nines gave them a small nod. Establishing a link with the android in case he needed to ask him for anything. Gavin walked round and picked up a basket, passing it behind him to Nines.

“You’re gonna carry this stuff.” He muttered as he turned away. “What’s on the list?”

“Mostly cleaning products. Washing up liquid, bleach, washing powder.” Nines started to list. “I will locate the more household items. You also require food for the next few days. As we are not at work, we will not be frequenting our usual spots.”

“Fine. I get it. I’ll get grub, you get the cleaning stuff.” Gavin huffed as he headed off towards a large cool box like display. A selection of sandwiches were on display alongside chilled canned drinks. Nines turned to scan the surroundings. The store was built in a very compact/cramped way, the isles barely wide enough for two people to comfortable pass each other without physical contact. It was actually a lot busier than he had expected. As he moved down one of the cluttered isles, he had to squeeze past another android. They were collecting similar supplies that he was after. A glance to her basket revealed pet products that were due to be purchased. Nines looked back to the shelves and started to add bottles to his basket. As he continued to work his way around the store, he was building a picture of how many people were in here.

There were a few different groups that seemed to be present. On his scans he counted 3 androids of various model numbers. All of them no doubt completing errands their owners had sent them on. There were a selection of humans in here too. He could hear a small child, female from her voice. The conversation she was apart of was with another older female. He suspected it was a grandmother out with her granddaughter. There was a couple also in the store at the end of his isle. They were holding onto each other, giggling and laughing. He felt a spike of instability looking at the couple. He forced himself to look away as he tried to get that irrational reaction under control. Gavin walked over to him and purposely bumped his shoulder. Nines didn’t turn around to look at him. Slowly centering himself he dropped his voice.

“You suspect danger Detective?” Nines asked softly.

“There’s a group of youths hanging around the back corner of the store. They seem to be muttering to themselves, all in hoodies and hands in pockets. One’s got a large backpack.” Gavin relayed to him. Nines closed his eyes as he scanned the area. He definitely picked up the individuals. There was about 5 of them. They were all congregating in a back corner of the store.

“I can see them. Do you want me to put the police on standby?” He asked as he opened his eyes, getting ready to call it in.

“Not yet.” Gavin hissed. “We are supposed to be off work. Just keep an eye on them, we’ll have to wait for them to do something.”

“Understood. I shall continue as normal but I will be on standby in case of trouble.” he took a moment. “If a fight breaks out, you should take your leave Detective. You are vastly outnumbered here.”

“Like fuck I’m leaving.” He growled. “If these punks want to cause trouble, they can deal with the consequences.

“Understood.” Nines sighed. Gavin was in no place to try and take on a gang of 5 by himself. This situation sparked a million questions. The identities of those involved? Motivations for such an attack? Were they carrying weapons? Gavin slunk off, probably to try and watch them from a better vantage point. Nines decided to continue shopping, acting as if he hadn’t seen them. As he moved to another isle he spotted one of the group. He didn’t stare at them, focusing on just browsing the shelves. He could now just hear their conversation. Adjusting a few settings he honed in on their conversation.

“We need to do it. We’ve been here too long already.”

“There’s a little kid in here. Wait until she’s gone.”

“Yeah. I don’t mind destroying these plastic shits, but a kid…”

“We aren’t killing a kid. Wait until they’ve gone. Everyone else will clear out if they know what’s good for them.”

“Yeah. We’ll even get some bonus hits too.”

“Remember we need to burn this place down.” 

“Burn?” Nines felt he’d picked up a key word. He almost felt something shudder inside him. Not only was arson a very serious crime, it was becoming a popular way to damage androids. With the advancements made by CyberLife. Androids were able to take and manage more physical distress than those before them. He was a prime example of this. He and RK800 could take a great amount of damage through physical alternations. Their frames were still susceptible to puncture wounds but their programming was fast enough to prevent themselves from becoming such victims in most altercations. Even with all the advanced programming and harder casing, they though were though by no means indestructible. Firearms were still a pretty effective way of causing a lot of damage to androids, as they would cause damage to humans. But fire was another matter. The unpredictability of fire made it hard to avoid, the intense heat and smoke also interfered with sensors making it even more difficult to process an escape route. Fire is also responsible for fast and permanent damage to androids, most notably destroying the synthetic skin that gives them their human appearance. Skin that cannot be self repaired and must be replaced. After the skin the fire could go deeper and cause irreversible damage to vital components that could destroy the android. Unless the memory is uploaded quickly, fire could permanently destroy an androids consciousness, making them impossible to salvageable. One of the few confirmed ways to ‘kill’ an android. The combination of high damage in a small time frame meant it was becoming a very popular ‘vigilante’ tactic against androids. He looked around and noted, the androids inside the shop were outnumbered by the humans. Given the makes involved and he was possibly the only combat model, the probability of android casualties was very high. He had to inform Gavin of the risks. He tried to put as much distance as possible between him and the group. One of the youths moved to the end isle, he suspected it was to watch the door. Easier to monitor how many targets they had and a lookout for complications. As Nines navigated his way around the narrow isles to find Gavin he spotted the little girl and her grandmother were checking out. The android on the till smiling and performing its role. They went through the motions of scanning the items. The little girl jumping up and down as she wanted to hand the money to them. The grandmother chuckled and gave the note to the girl. She then held it up to the android which he accepted. Nines looked around him, he had no visual on Gavin. He started to walk between the isles as non suspiciously as possible. The door to the shop chimed causing him to glance over. The young couple had pulled it open. Neither of them smiling or looking back, the door swung open a little too far and banged against the wall as they tried to leave as quickly as possible. He looked around as he realised Gavin was the only other human in the shop. He moved to the next isle and he could see one of the youths had approached Gavin. It looked like some sort of argument. The youth huffing and giving up, storming away from Gavin, seemingly reporting to one of the others. Nines subtly approached him to check in. Reaching for something on a higher shelf.

“So one of those punks just told me I needed to leave if I knew what was good for me.” He grumbled. “They are definitely gonna try something.”

“I believe it will be an arson attempt. I overheard them and I quote ‘We need to burn this place down’.” He mimicked the humans voice almost perfectly. Though the reaction Gavin gave him was unexpected. He turned round to him sharply, his skin had paled and his eyes were wide.

“You mean, they are intending to set fire to this place?” He stuttered. 

“I believe that is their intention.” Nines registered the startled expression. “I believe that is why they are trying to clear the story of humans. I received no such warning and I suspect neither did any of the other androids in this location. This is a planned attack against androids using fire.”

“Get out of here then!” Gavin hissed. “Those lil shits are going to try and destroy you!”

“I cannot do that. It is against my programming.” Nines replied flatly. Confused by the sudden request. “I must stay here to ensure your safety.”

“And if I leave. Would you leave?” Gavin snapped at him.

“No…” Nines was a little confused by his erratic actions. “As part of the DPD, it is in our duty to prevent crimes. I am programmed to stand my ground and act in the best interest of the public.”

“Don’t you realise what happens to androids when they get melted! I could lose you!” Gavin grabbed Nines’ collar in frustration. Though it was completely unfounded. His circle flashed yellow for a few moments as Nines stayed silent. Blinking as his circle returned to blue.

“Do not worry. I have uploaded my memory to CyberLife. In the case I am destroyed CyberLife will send you a replacement model.” Nines reported. Gavin beat a fist against his chest.

“That’s not what I mean you plastic prick!” His tone did not resemble that of anger, more a tone of desperation. He couldn’t understand why Gavin was acting so emotional. He had uploaded his memories so if the worst should happen, he would not go one without him. Why was he so attached to this model. Gavin looked up to him. “You fucking survive this!”

“Understood.” Nines gave him a quick nod.

“Alright nobody move!” A voice shouted from the front of the shop. Gavin and Nines turned to see the gang had launched their attack. The ringleader stood next to the android on the till. Aerosol can and a lighter being pointed at the androids head, the small flame close to the now hostage android. “If any one of you plastic shits try anything, this one is gonna be scrap!” Nines quickly started to call the DPD. Someone came up behind him and attempted to shoved him forwards. Not really giving any ground he found the same makeshift items pointed at his back.

“Move plastic!” One of the youths who were using a bandanna to cover their face ordered him. Nines glanced to Gavin, Gavin looked like he was going to deck the kid. As he looked back towards the front, the other two androids were being marched out of their isles and to the front of the store. He could see their stress levels increasing. This was not a good sign, he started to calculate his options. After running multiple scenarios through he decided the best course of action was to play along for now. Once he was with the other androids, he had a higher probability of getting them out with repairable amounts of damage. But then their was Gavin to consider. Unlike himself, humans are not replaceable. He had to find a way to get Gavin to leave the shop. This was probably the most difficult of tasks. The youth had grown inpatient. “I said move!” He flicked his lighter on.

“What do you think you’re doing with my android?” Gavin glared at the youth. The youth glanced to the front desk. The leader giving him a sharp nod. This gave him the courage needed to send a test spray at the floor in front of Gavin. The spray igniting and produced a short and violent burst of flame. Nines watched as Gavin’s entire demeanor changed. He stiffened up and staggered back a little, crashing into the shelves. His expression had distorted to one that Nines had never seen before. Pure fear, as if he was reliving some sort of past trauma. Nines could feel a new wave of erroneous code force it’s way out. This new stream flooded his system and he felt his hand reach out to Gavin.

“Yeah that’s what I thought.” The youth smirked. “All talk but nothing else!” Grabbing Nines’ extended arm roughly and trying to pull him around. Nines arm didn’t budge. It was locked in place. “What the fuck! You broken or something?” The kid tried to pull on his arm harder, trying to turn him away from Gavin. Nines was busy running a scan over Gavin. The flame had caused no physical damage but that wasn’t his concern. His stress was high. His eyes were out of focus. He didn’t seem to be responding to anything that was going on around him, Gavin began to slowly slump down the shelves. He was mumble something, he tried his best to read his lips. But the movements were too small and erratic to decipher words. Nines felt another pair of hands grab his arm in an attempt to move him. He started to upload his memory as a red wall seemed to flash before his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello~ Sorry this chapter took a while. I did complete a chapter 4 before the new year but I was really unhappy with it. It didn't go in the direction I had planned so this one took a little longer to get out to you guys.
> 
> Thank you so much for all the Kudos! This is now my most Kudosed fic and that makes me so happy! I hope the wait was worth it~


	5. Chapter 5

Once the memory had completed upload Nines looked at the wall. He could see a silhouette of himself smashing his fists against it as the code continued to produce errors that flashed across his vision. The silhouette hit it again and again, the red wall cracking and fracturing before his eyes. He knew he needed to break that wall. He felt compelled to smash it to pieces for reason’s he couldn’t quantify or begin to explain. Wish a final and almost deafening crash the wall shattered before him and everything went silent. No more error warnings. No more erroneous code. He just slowly came back into the room. Becoming aware of the hands on his arm, trying to drag him away. He turned slowly and looked at the youths.

“What the fuck is wrong with this thing?!” One that was nearly hanging off his arm complained.

“Just burn it where it stands. It’s probably broken.” The leader from the front of the shop called out. Nines watched one of the youths move away as they went to collect up their makeshift weapons. A window had opened for him. He moved quickly, gripping onto the forearm of the youth still holding him.

“What the fuck do you thi-” The youth started, trying to force Nines’s hand off his wrist. Nines caught hold of his other forearm. Slowly he looked up and made eye contact with the youth. His disk no doubt spinning red as he started to squeeze. He was designed to go toe to toe with fully grown adults, this was nothing. The youth started to scream as he squeezed slowly, not breaking eye contact. No feeling crossed his face as a sickening snap could be heard. Silence fell across the shop for a few moments as a second snap was heard. The youth rediscovered his voice and screamed blue murder. “It broke my arm! The fucking plastic shit broke my arm!” they howled as they backed away. Unable to do anything as their wrists rag-dolled to the side. Taking flight he bolted for the exit. One down. Nines turned to the leader.

“Leave now... or else!” He threatened them. The leader looked at him. He could tell they were trying to keep a brave face. Though his eyes betrayed the fear he felt.

“Destroy it! Destroy them all!” The leader screamed as he pushed the android to the ground. Grabbing his can he started to set fire to the android on the ground. Distorted screaming could be heard as the others went to follow. The two in the corner with the other hostages seemed to have a bit of trouble with their lighters. Nines examined the scene before him. He quickly analysed the best cause of action, fast forwarding and rewinding through reconstructions to choose a route. He though didn’t have as much time as he would have liked. The youth nearest to him was ready.

“Die you plastic prick!” The youth shouted as he let loose with his makeshift flamethrower. The flames quickly engulfed Nines, burning away at his clothing and his face. As the blast came to an end he looked at the youth. A sections of his synthetic skin were already damaged. Most of this was concentrated around his exposed hands and face. His blazer was burning as he tore it off him. Deciding to throw the burning fabric at the youth. He threw the bundle at the youth who scattered. He bolted to the door, clearly not expecting Nines to continue fighting. He walked slowly towards the duo that had started on the androids, the service models screaming and trying to protect themselves.

“Burn you shits!” They screamed as they watched their flamethrowers eat away at the two androids. Nines knew the android behind the counter had the lowest probability of survival so he priorities the pair. He sprinted across the store towards them, trampling his burning jacket. One of them spotted his approach and had a pure deer in headlights moment. They decided to try and make a run for the shop door. Nines wasn’t going to let him escape that easily. He quickly intercepted the escape path, putting his arm out as he clotheslined the youth. The youth dropped to the ground like a stone. A quick scan and Nines deduced he was unconscious. The androids in the corner looked at Nines with a panicked expression, their circles flashed yellow and red. His attention quickly shifting as a new wave of flames were unleashed on him, more errors flashed up as he shielded his eyes. Nines steeled himself as he was not going to be deterred. He knew that level of flame would not be enough to stop him. He barreled through the flames being fired at him and attempted to connected with their creator. He had slightly miscalculated their position as he rammed into their side. This was though enough to knock the weapons from his hands. By this point he could see the armature of his hands and arms coming through as the synthetic skin burned and fell off him. Falling to the ground in chunks. Moving a hand to his face, a sludgy amount came away from his cheek. He looked round to locate the youth who was trying to escape. He reached an arm out and caught the back of his jacket. The youth looked round at him with pure fear as Nines felt another chunk of the synthetic skin fall from his burned face. The youth went pale in his grip and fainted. He could now see behind the counter and the glowing remains of the android their leader had destroyed. The leader looked back at him. Their eyes meeting.

“I’m place is burning down!” He yelled, leaping over the counter and sprinting to the door. Some of the youths Nines had injured before had made their way to the door. He could clearly see hatred and pain in their eyes. As he made his escape, he turned around and smirked as he set fire to the products on the shelves nearest the door. The packaging and products catching fire quickly as it started to spread down the shelves. He had to apprehend him quickly. “Chase me or save your stupid human!” He challenged him. Nines thought pattern froze. He started to look around the store. Quickly trying to locate Gavin, trying to remember which aisle he was in. The flames tore through the products as an entire isle was on fire now. The flames and smoke blocking out the view of the shop front. The leader disappeared with two of his accomplices in tow. He quickly assessed the others in the store. The remains behind the till showed no activity. He had been consumed by the fire. Nines looked at the androids in the corner, they were both looking at him in fear as they tried to extinguish the flames on their own bodies. Neither were too badly damaged and both repairable.

“Pick up a human each. Shield them from the worst of the flames. Find another way out. Take them to safety.” He instructed them. They nodded quickly and started to carefully move to collect the unconscious youth and their previous attacker. Nines looked back around the shop in panic as the flames started to consume the next isle. He had to find Gavin. No matter what damage he sustained, he had to find Gavin and get him out. He run towards the isle that was starting to catch on fire. He ran to the end of the shelves. He quickly pressed his hands against the top of the shelf, pushing it away from him with all his strength. He grunted as it was far heavier and hotter than he was expecting. He saw errors flash up and damage reports as his plastic casing was starting to melt on contact, but he had to push it over. He had to try to contain the fire on one side of the shop. He willed harder, thinking that if he couldn’t push it over, Gavin would soon be trapped by the growing flames. That image gave him a jolt of power as he felt the shelf start to tip. It fell back, flames consuming the products. With it Nines felt some of his outer casing being ripped away as it fell. Looking to his hands, some of his fingers had been melted together. He didn’t have time for this. Turning round he couldn’t see Gavin in the isle he had just pushed over. He quickly started to backtrack through the isles. The smoke starting to fill the shop as the heat grew more intense. He had to move crouched down to maintain clearer vision. He knew he wouldn’t survive in here much longer, let alone Gavin. He tired to scan but the smoke was interfering with his sensors.

“Gavin! Gavin Reed! Please respond!” He shouted. No response. He could hear sirens outside. Probably the police and fire department. They might not get in in time. Especially with the wall of fire at the front of the shop. 

“There is an escape this way!” One of the androids shouted to him. He glanced across only quickly to locate his exit. He was not abandoning his search. The next isle there was a figure was lying on the ground. Panic filled his system as he tried to move over to him. He forced his way through the smoke and felt relief finding Gavin laying flat to the ground, breathing and conscious. He had a high heart rate but at least he was still breathing. He quickly lay down so he was on his level. “Gavin, it’s Nines. I’m here. I’m going to get you out!”

“Why does he hate me?! What did I do wrong?!” Gavin whimpered in hysterics, trying to curl away from Nines. He could see dried tears on his cheeks. Whatever he was going through was causing him great distress. Nines felt an ache in his chest seeing him like this, but he had to ignore it. He couldn’t make sense of Gavin’s words, but that was for later. His priority was getting Gavin out alive.

“I need you to co-operate Gavin. I’m getting you out of this fire.” He explained slowly, his voice softer than normal. “You need to follow my lead. Do you understand?” Gavin nodded weakly. “Okay Gavin. We are going to crawl under the smoke and we are going to get out of here.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make him angry!” He whimpered. Another sentence Nines would have to deconstruct later.

“Gavin, get up to crawling, we are getting out of here.” Nines moved next to him and tried to pick him up by the back of his jacket, a little difficult with the claw his hand had fused into, but he had to try to forcing him to crawl. Luckily Gavin did respond to the not so gentle persuasion. Nines crawled by his side. Once of the androids calling out to them to help them navigate to the door through the smoke. He continued mumbling incoherently, never looking at Nines during the escape. Nines stayed shoulder to shoulder with him and steered him out to the open door and the other android. 

As they reached the door, Nines nudged Gavin to go first. He was pulled out of the door by the waiting paramedics. 

The air was co cool out here after the hell he'd just escaped. No time to appreciate the change of surroundings as Gavin was quickly placed on a stretcher and an oxygen mask placed over his mouth. His eyes closed as he continued to mumble. Nines' sight line was blocked as more paramedics started looking over him. Some of them were androids. Nines staggered over slowly to the group. He watched one initiate a call, glancing up to him.

“Do you know this man?” The android asked.

“Yes.” Nines replied quickly. “Gavin Reed. Detective Gavin Reed of the DPD.” He said, he didn’t know if the extra information would help but he wanted it on record. He watched the androids light spin yellow before returning to blue. 

“Confirmed identity of Gavin Reed. His insurance company has been informed and we will escort him to the hospital.” They paused for a moment. “Who is the Detective’s next of kin?”

“I…” Nines drew a blank. He had never met any of Gavin’s family, nor had Gavin ever mentioned them. “I do not know his next of kin.”

“Who are you to the Detective?” The android asked.

“I’m his partner.” Nines replied. The android’s disk spun yellow again. This time taking a little longer to process.

“You are the android assigned by the Detroit Police Department who shares a residency with the Detective.” The android spoke as if reading from a file. “RK900 #313 248 317 - 87.” Nines couldn’t explain it, but something about the response seemed jarring. Being referred to as simply ‘the android assigned by’ made him annoyed, hearing his full name read out felt even worse. He was Nines, Gavin Reed’s partner and housemate. But on the other hand, nothing that the android had reported was factually incorrect. If there were no mistakes, why was he so angered by this? The android held out a hand. “Please confirm identity.” Nines looked at his damaged hands. He ran a quick diagnostic and realised he couldn’t do anything. The sensors and circuits in his hands had been severely damaged in the fire he was unable to interface. He looked around to try and catch his reflection. He caught it in a nearby window and almost recoiled. He didn’t look anything like himself. So much of the synthetic skin around his face had been burnt, there were very dark patches around his hairline and chin, a patch under his left eye with burnt edges. The casing underneath was burnt and partially deformed at points. Nothing that couldn’t be replaced. He told himself. The android repeated the question. “Please confirm identity.”

“I am too damaged to interface.” Nines said, his voice trembling a little. He had never heard his own voice sound like that. “Will a wireless signature be acceptable?” The android paused.

“That will be acceptable.” They replied with a smile, lowering their hand. Nines looked to him and they connected wirelessly. Nines sent the equivalent of a business card to the android. They nodded to him. “Identity accepted. As you share a residency, you will be sent an update when he will be discharged.”

“Is that it?” Nines asked.

“Yes. You have no need for other information. The head of the DPD will be kept informed with updates on his condition and will be advised how to integrate him back into his role post recovery.” He turned away, his focus turning to Gavin who was now asleep on the stretcher. The group started to slowly lift him up and carry him around from the back of the gas station and towards the waiting emergency services. Nines tried to follow them round with the other androids who had escaped the blaze. As they walked round, they could see the flashing lights of all 3 emergency services. The other androids separated out to greet their owners. One shouting at how much trouble had been caused. The other was a lady crying and sobbing over her android. Pulling them into a close hug. Nines was watching the happy pair when he heard a voice shouting.

“That’s the one officer! That’s the android that attacked us and set the shop on fire!” Nines only had enough time to locate the source. The pure evil grin from the group leader as the officer next to him pulled the trigger.

‘Fatal Damage Sustained. Upload failed. System Shut down in 3...2...1…’


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing Nines noticed was the rain. The drops fell on his face and they felt cool on his synthetic skin as he opened his eyes. He looked around the gloomy Zen garden in a haze of confusion. He had never seen the garden in anything but sunshine. As he looked around he could see his systems were doing their usual checks. He watched the bar fill up as more and more processes were confirmed completed. Despite the string of positive information, he felt like he’d lost something. From the checks, they confirmed no physical damage had been sustained. His coding was reporting no to low issues in his cognitive functions. The erroneous code was running at low levels and the higher waves were contained in quarantine. Dates set for it to be removed from his system. He did notice his model number had increased by one. Had he been damaged and replaced? Would that explain the sense of loss? He quickly accessed his memory to scan for a cause. His memory banks were showing corruption of data and a block of operational time with no memory to cover it. His memory must have been lost in some sort of accident. An accident that caused his previous model to be destroyed. He would ask Amanda about it. There was a small rumble of thunder. Looking around he noticed an umbrella was resting against a tree nearby. He sensed the weather was going to get worse before it got better. Nines stepped towards the umbrella and picked it up. Putting the handle over his arm he looked around the rest of the garden. He had to locate Amanda quickly, she wouldn’t appreciate being left out in the rain. He had to understand what had happened, then he could prevent the same action from repeating. His scans located her in not time. To his surprise she was not tending to her roses. She was standing off to one side looking at an object he couldn’t recall seeing before. She was standing in front of a single white stone. As he began to approach her, he loaded his last saved memory up to review. Maybe there were some clues inside it as to what happened. He watched it update in his systems. Once the previous models memories were successfully installed, he felt like someone had gut punched him as he relieved those last few moments. It caused him to stagger for a few steps. He was in a gas station, he had been with Gavin… there were some youths that were going to attack and… the fire! They ordered him to move away from Gavin. Gavin’s aggressive reaction to them. Nines felt a rush of rogue data flood his system. That expression, that moment. The memory stopped, the final image. Gavin’s expression of pure fear through some sort of red wall. He couldn’t identify what the wall was. It didn’t seem to have a physical presence. He ran the memory back but the wall only appeared at the very end. Whatever the wall was, it probably caused by errors in his system and caused his destruction. He started to quickly collected the rogue data before it could be processed by his systems. If he had processed it… It could cause him to make ‘emotionally’ driven decisions instead of the far more correct logical decisions. Leading to inefficient actions and worse impulsive reactions. He placed it all in a new quarantine folder. Setting a deletion date as he felt his correct cognitive functions return. The red wall, whatever that was he would find out later. The one thing he couldn’t forget though was Gavin’s reaction to that flame. The way he changed and shifted. He had never seen Gavin so scared of anything before in his life. He understood now this is what humans meant when something is ‘burned into your memory’. Though androids had far better and accurate recalling capabilities. Maybe moments like that with strong emotional connotations are recalled easily by humans. He made a note to inquire about the incident with Gavin. The fire must have triggered one of these moments. He may be able to shed yet further light on the reason for his destruction. After he had confirmed his systems had stabilised, he continued to walk over to Amanda. He didn’t want to show weakness to her. As he approached he opened the umbrella and stood next to her, shielding them both from the rain.

“I never would have expected this to happen again.” Amanda said softly, almost mournfully as she looked at the white stone. Nines turned his attention to it to see his previous model name and number inscribed on it. It also showed his location, date and time.

“I understand my previous model was destroyed.” Nines stated.

“What do you remember?” Amanda asked, she was always straight to the point. Nines glanced to her.

“My previous models memory shows him being in that store with Detective Reed. A group of youths were suspected of committing arson and damage to androids.” he recounted from his memory. “I remember Detective Reed had a strong emotional reaction to the fire. After that… Nothing.”

“Does the memory end after the fire first being directed at Detective Reed?” She clarified turning to him. “Nothing from then on?” Nines replayed the memory. Flinching as he saw that expression again. He couldn’t tell what part of him, but he dismissed informing Amanda about the red wall.

“No. Nothing from then on. The memory shows corruption and has probably been lost in the destruction of my old model.” Amanda studied his expression for a moment before turning away.

“We were able to apprehend the humans involved, we also apprehended the deviant at the scene who set the store on fire.” She said coldly. “We had it’s memory probed and using that and the security cameras we were able to work out what happened.”

“What happened?” Nines asked. Amanda paused for a moment in thought.

“After fire was shot at Detective Reed, one of the youths struck you on the back of the neck using an item from the store. Through some stroke of misfortune, it hit a particular weak point in your casing. This sudden impact to such a point caused you to involuntarily shut down on the spot. After that the youths moved on to burn and destroy the android that ran the counter. Seeing another android being burnt to a crisp set off something in one of the remaining androids. They showed signs that mimicked distressed behaviour and fear. It soon went deviant. Attacking and seriously injuring the humans. It then proceeded to steal their weapons and set fire to the store in an attempt to kill them. Luckily the DPD and fire department were called in time to prevent such an outcome. The firefighters were lucky they were able to find and rescue Detective Reed.”

“And… my previous model was left inside.” Nines slowly connected the dots.

“Yes. Detective Reed, no matter how incompetent and reckless he may seem, is still more important than an android. By the time the fire was dealt with, your previous model was unsalvageable.” She looked to him. “I hope you are not implying you should of be-”

“Of course not.” He interrupted her. “Detective Reed is the priority. He is human.” Amanda looked like she was going to scold him for interrupting but held her tongue. A few moments of silence passed between them. The rain continued to fall, getting heavier as it pattered against the umbrella.

“From the report earlier that day. I believed Detective Reed was on leave. How did the Detective end up in such a situation when he is supposed to be off duty?”

“They had gone out shopping for home essentials. I believe the phrase used is ‘being in the wrong place at the wrong time’.” Nines explained.

“Did it not occur to you to leave the location and contact your colleagues once you suspected a crime was about to be committed?” Amanda asked looking up to him.

“My programming is to assist the Detective and the DPD. I thought I could intervene and prevent the crime getting too out of hand. Reduce the casualties.” Amanda didn’t miss a beat.

“From my understanding, the only human that was in danger was the Detective. All other humans had previously left the location or were perpetrators?” Her tone got sharper.

“Yes. The Detective was the only human-”

“So what casualties are your referring too?” Nines could feel her eyes fix on him. He stayed quiet as he replayed the memory. He couldn’t locate any other innocent humans at the scene. Only 3 other androids. Androids that could just be replaced. He had been left to burn and he had far more monetary value that both all of them combined. Androids were never victims of crimes, there were no android casualties. He knew there was no reason he could give that would please Amanda. “You are RK900 now. Take responsibility for your previous models actions. The humans will see you as the same model. Going forwards, you will have to carry the responsibilities of your previous model.

“I understand. In that case… I misevaluated the situation. I should of left to ensure the safety of the Detective and contacted my colleagues to intervene. There were no other potential casualties.” He said slowly as he looked to the floor. The weight of his actions hitting him. He felt the air grow colder around them. “As a result I have put the Detective’s life in danger and caused my own destruction.” Nines felt a hand on his cheek. He lifted to gaze to see Amanda had stepped closer to him.

“Do not beat yourself up over this. Your predecessor was also prone to making irrational decisions. Like you he was replaced and he carried on.” Her tone was almost comforting. “This is a learning curve we all must go on. Other androids can be replaced. Like you they can come back and humans won’t notice a difference. Maybe now you will understa-”

“Gavin would.” Two words that slipped from his mouth before he could catch them. Amanda went silent as he could feel her grip tighten around his cheek.

“Detective Reed.” She said with contempt. Nines knew his mistake. Not only interrupting Amanda but by using Gavin’s first name and not his title.

“Detective Reed… he showed strong attachment to my previous model. Even when I explained my memory would continue. He claimed I misunderstood the situation.” He said quickly, trying to justify himself.

“He is a human. An emotionally vulnerable human with deep set fears. He is projecting more human emotions onto you as a coping mechanism. Do not fall into his little fantasy. Androids are incapable of experiencing emotions as humans do. Emotions cause mistakes as you have discovered. If you buy into his fantasy that androids can have emotions, you will make more mistakes. You will become another deviant and a bigger failure to CyberLife. No better than your predecessor and then.” She lent in. “You will become obsolete.”

“I will not go deviant! My apologies Amanda for speaking out of turn. I will take time to purge my system of any erroneous code.” His voice gradually getting louder with each point. “I will readdress my processing so I do not make the same mistake. Androids are not alive. We do not have emotions like humans. They are machines that can be replaced when needed. I will not allow Detective Reed to compromise my mission.”

“I am relieved that you have not lost sight of you mission.” Her voice softened. “I feared we were going to lose you.” She looked back to the stone. Slowly stepping away from him. The rain was starting to get lighter. “A week has passed since the incident. The Detective made a full recovery, though he has been forced to attend meetings with a psychologist.”

“A psychologist?” Nines queried.

“Yes. You were not the only one that had a lapse in judgment that day. From the reports, he suffered from a breakdown brought on by his post traumatic stress disorder. I recommend you read the medical reports. You need to understand what triggers this condition and make adjustments to prevent further incidents like this.”

“I understand.” Nines nodded. “I shall factor this development in with my interaction regarding Detective Reed.”

“Understood. You will resume work immediately at the DPD. Until your next report RK900.”

“I will not fail you again.” Nines nodded as he closed his eyes.

***

He ‘woke up’ in a small but oddly familiar room. Looking around he started processing his surroundings. He was sitting at a table in a small rectangular room with dim lighting. A large glass window to his side, though he could only see his reflection look back at him. This layout did not match his previous models memories of Gavin’s house nor his assigned room. He attempted to stand up to explore his surroundings. He heard a clink and felt pressure around his wrists. His attempt to search the room was being hindered by a set of cuff, holding him in place at the table. Tilting his head he examined the handcuffs. They were the traditional police grade. Looking at the finer details they must belong to an active officer, scuffs and scratches including a more worn locking mechanism. He was about to work out the best way to break them when a door opened behind him.

“I am relieved to see you’ve finally been reactivated.” A rather cheery voice said, the voice sounded similar to his own. Nines looked round to see RK800 smiling to him. Nine had a mixed reaction to seeing his predecessor. One one hand, he was relieved to see someone. On the other hand there was still unresolved tension between RK800 and himself. His presence was the final piece of the puzzle. Everything clicked into place and for whatever reason, he was in an interrogation cell at the DPD.

“I have been informed that a week has passed since the incident in which my previous model was destroyed.” Nines said flatly. Deciding not to obviously break the cuffs in RK800s presence, no matter how irritating they were. He slowly returned to his seat. He could see the smile on RK800’s smile faltered but he stayed positive. He walked round and sat opposite him.

“I can confirm you have been offline for the past 7 days.” RK800 said. “Your new model arrived within 24 hours of your previous one being destroyed. The DPD have stored you here until CyberLife reactivated you.”

“So… what exactly are you doing here?” Nines asked with a cold tone. RK800 didn’t react to it. “Why couldn’t I simply rejoin Detective Reed?”

“I have been monitoring your condition. Keeping you under observation as we were unsure when and in what state you would reactivate.” RK800 explained. Nines pulled a little at the cuffs. What was he implying? “We wouldn’t be able to monitor your reactivation if you were in a private residence. They also didn’t want you to reactive alone.”

“Alone? I wouldn’t of been alone.” He pulled at the cuffs again. Taking a moment to pause and glare at the offending item. “Since when was it protocol to restrain me?”

“I was told it was done to ensure safety.” RK800 responded quickly. Nines looked to him slowly, trying to process his current state. Something about this entire situation was off. His programming prevents him from harming humans. So he was no risk to them. He was also being held in a DPD interrogation cell where he could be monitored by his inferior model. A room out of the main run of the police station, one of the most structurally sound rooms constructed to contain violent outbursts and on top of all that he had been cuffed to the table. He ran scenarios in which this made sense. Given the factors he observed, there was only one other case androids were in his position. He looked up slowly and met RK800’s eyes.

“Who’s safety?” He asked nervously. RK800 shifted in his seat a little, Nines could see RK800’s hand disappearing in his pocket. Then he took a deep breath and dropped the cheery personality. He pulled out a small coin Nines had seen him play with before. He watched as his predecessor started to roll the coin between his fingers. “Please…” Nine’s voice was shaking. “You have to tell me why.” RK800 glanced to the security cameras and to the window. He looked to him before trying to wirelessly connect with Nines. Nines noticed the shift in posture and accepted the request.

‘We didn’t know what your last memory was.’ RK800 whispered in the call. ‘I couldn’t access your memory when you were deactivated. As such we had no idea how you would behave when you reactivated. That is why you are restrained. The humans are scared of you.’

‘They are scared of me?’ He queried. ‘But I would never harm a human.’

‘They don’t believe that.’ RK800 explained. ‘There were contradictory accounts about what happened inside that place. What do you remember?’ Nines recoiled away from him. He didn’t want RK800 to know his shame. How he was completely useless and inefficient in his role. How he was responsible for Gavin to be sent to the hospital.

‘I don’t remember much… I remember one of the threatening Gavin…’ Nines could feel himself flinch as he reran the memory. That expression came into focus again. Then just as the memory was ending, he saw that red wall again. ‘After that… nothing. Just black. That’s when Amanda said I was struck and taken offline.’ RK800 suddenly slammed his hands on the table catching Nines off guard. He quickly stood up and stared into Nines’ eyes. As if he was searching for something. ‘What are you?’

‘Amanda told you you were offline? How was your previous model destroyed?’ He pushed.

‘My previous model was destroyed by the fire.’ He had never seen RK800 so serious.

‘Did she tell you that?!’ He pushed harder. Nines didn’t like the way RK800 was acting towards him. Treating him like a common criminal when he had done nothing wrong.

‘What are you implying!’ Nines snapped back, trying to stand up so he was taller than RK800. He was not going to be pushed around by his deviant predecessor.

‘What was the last thing you remember!?’ RK800 demanded. ‘Not what Amanda told you happened!’ Nines’ snarled and stood up, despite his wrists being cuffed he wanted to challenge RK800. Slamming his hands on the table.

‘Amanda told me the truth of what happened after I was knocked unconscious! The last thing I remember is an expression I never want to see on Gavin’s face ever again! Even through that stupid red wall! I will never be able to forget it!’ He shouted at him. Something about what he said must of hit home as his predecessor immediately backed away from him. Fear crossing RK800’s face as his disk started rapidly spinning between red and yellow.

‘A… red wall? Are you sure?’ He almost stuttered. Nines felt more erroneous code accumulate in his system. He recalled that RK800 was specialised in recognising deviant behaviour. Nines felt it was his turn to become worried. He was trapped in an interrogation cell, cuffed to a table like a deviant. Now RK800 had backed away from him. Nines dropped into his seat, he let his vision go out of focus. He couldn’t be a deviant, he couldn’t be. He started to run checks on his behaviour and systems. He had to delete the rogue data immediately. He could still serve his purpose. He just needed to- ‘Nines? Please… just take a moment. Stop and count to 10.’ RK800’s voice was soft and calming. He looked up to him slowly, his vision coming into focus on him. ‘Did you break the wall?’

‘Break what?’ Nines queried.

‘The red wall you saw… did you break it?’ RK800 asked gently.

‘No. I didn’t break if before I was taken offline.’ He processed the information. If he didn’t break the wall… what did that mean. If he had broken the wall… what wou-

“You aren’t a deviant.” RK800 spoke out loud. “You may have a faulty memory of events… but you are not a deviant.” Nines never felt so relieved. The way RK800 was expressing it though. It was like there was someo-. The door opened to the room.

“Good work Con.” Lieutenant Anderson stepped inside the cell. “Sorry Nines, we had to be sure.” Nines just stared at the Lieutenant. How long had he been watching them? Probably the whole time. Nines just stayed quiet as the Lieutenant uncuffed him. “It’s about time you switched back on. Reed’s getting sent home today. I heard he’s been bitching and whining in the hospital to be released. At least he’s got that good insurance so he won’t have to foot a massive bill.” He pocketed the cuffs and stepped back. RK800 tilted his head as he watched Nines.

“If it is possible. I’d like to go over the aftermath of the incident.” He said. “So you and Detective Reed can have closure.”

“Just let it go Connor. He’s gonna have a lot to process already.” The Lieutenant turned and started to leave the room. Looking back at the pair and sighing. “I’ll take you home to Reed… As much as he’ll never admit it. He misses you.” Nines looked over to him in shock. Even after everything he had done? Even after nearly causing Gavin to lose his life, he still wanted to see him? He missed him? RK800 looked to him with a softer smile.

“Let’s take you home to your partner.”


	7. Chapter 7

Lieutenant Anderson lead the pair out of the interrogation room. RK800 didn’t leave Nine’s side as they walked towards the main floor. Nines could feel eyes on him immediately as they entered the main floor. He could sense the tension in the air. Some people gave him a long stare over the top of their screens. Others glanced at him and quickly turned away. They decided to move into the break room to wait as Lieutenant Anderson went to the Captain’s office. Standing awkwardly at the back of the break room. Nines watched RK800 walk over to the water cooler and poured himself a drink. He didn’t bother questioning the illogical action.

“What is the Lieutenant doing?” Nines asked RK800 as he returned.

“He was told to report in when you reactivated.” RK800 replied promptly. “As I mentioned before, we didn’t know what your last memory was. Now we have confirmed you are not a deviant and suitable to return to work, he’s probably just updating the Captain with that information.”

“I still do not understand the high levels of security I was under when I reactivated.” Nines said softly so only RK800 would be able to hear.

“You are currently the most advanced android in the station. Should you of reactivated and become violent, I’m sure I would be able to delay you but the probability of me defeating you in hand to hand combat was not in my favour. So they took extra precautions to reduce risk. Cuffing you to the table, though that would only realistically delayed you. It might of bought me enough time to leave the room. But if you reactivated and broke them instantly, I would be the only one destroyed.” RK800 explained. Though he could understand his logic, he still felt a little insulted they suspected he could display such behaviour.

“Did Lieutenant Anderson approve of your decision to potentially risk this model should I of turned violent?” Nines asked curiously. He knew the pair had a… deeper relationship than him and Gavin. He wanted to understand a little more about it to validate his own relationship was not following their route. Then when he was confident he could refute those thoughts with evidence, he could continue focusing on his mission. RK800 looked down to his feet.

“Hank didn’t like my plan to face you alone. I told him it was the only way to ensure no humans were at risk, should the worst happen.” He said with a tinge of guilt. RK800 looked to him confused. RK800 made the best decision considering all the factors.

“Lieutenant Anderson would have risked humans?” Nines queried. That was an illogical decision.

“No, no… he didn’t want to risk humans. He was unhappy at the prospect he could potentially have to watch you destroy me.” RK800 explained.

“Is that due to your… relationship?” Nines felt dirty trying to discuss this topic, but it could help him understand his situation with Gavin.

“I believe so.” RK800 looked up to him. “He has watched me be destroyed before on duty. Sometimes… I sacrificed myself to protect him. No matter the reason, it causes him pain each time a model gets destroyed. I do not want to cause my partner more undue stress and upset. He has already lost so much. So I now try to limit the danger I place myself in. Accidents will always happen with our line of work. But I care about Hank, he has done so much for me and I owe it to him to be more than just another android.” He smiled softly. “That’s why I don’t regret going deviant, because humans find so much more fulfillment away from simply completing task after task. I wish to find greater fulfillment for myself. Building relationships, having personal goals. Away from what Amanda demanded of me. As a bonus, becoming more compassionate with my partner it has greatly improved our efficiency. Have you noticed that with Detective Reed?”

“Have I noticed… what exactly?” Nines was caught off guard by the question.

“Since you have been with Detective Reed, I have noticed you have changed. Not necessarily towards me or others, but towards him.” RK800 said. “When you join in or are part of his non-work life, no matter how illogical the action may seem to you, it has value to him. Do you get on better?” Nines thought back through his memories for times when he and Gavin weren’t working. He took samples every 3 months going all the way back to the day he was assigned. Marking occasions when Gavin had enforced his ‘No Work’ days. He analysed each event and how it compared to the previous one. He felt nervous as the evidence was all there in front of him. As he had responded more positively to Gavin’s impulsive nature. Letting himself have ‘time off’ with Gavin had improved their relationship. Gavin was less aggressive towards him, he communicated with him more, he spent more time in his presence, he even looked after himself a little better. In conclusion they had a far more stable working relationship. Nines reached the conclusion that caring and showing more human emotions towards Gavin had made them a better team. Attending to Gavin’s emotional side had positive work benefits.

“Looking over the evidence… it does conclude that attending to their emotional needs does improve factors of the relationship.” Nines had to concede it with a slight strain in his voice. RK800 looked very pleased with himself.

“So from your social interactions would you still consider your relationship as a purely working one? Or has to progressed to something resembling friendship, or is it mo-”

“From the evidence, we are possibly friends but nothing more.” He said sharply. He knew their behaviour was starting to resemble the early stages of RK800 and Lieutenant Anderson’s relationship. Before RK800 had gone deviant. He was not going to allow his relationship with Gavin to escalate to that level. He was not going to disappoint Amanda the same way his predecessor had done. He sensed RK800 had moved closer to him. Glancing to his side, he was correct. He couldn’t quite read RK800s expression but he sensed smugness. Stupid inferior deviant model. “I can’t help he got attached to me.”

“I understand. You two are just friends.” RK800 teased him as he looked away. Nines was debating striking RK800. Luckily for him Lieutenant Anderson exited from the Captain’s office.

“Right. Talked to Fowler and you are all cleared to go home to Reed. Let’s go.”

“Thank you Lieutenant Anderson.” Nines nodded to him. Lieutenant Anderson nodded to him and looked to RK800.

“What are you so happy about Con?” He asked. Nines glared at RK800.

“It’s nothing Lieutenant.” He better keep his mouth shut. RK800’s smugness increased as he looked back to him. Nines huffed and looked away as he noticed rogue data had been creeping in for a while. He did not need this now. He just focused on following Lieutenant Anderson out of the precinct. Ignoring the uncomfortable looks from the other officers. He just wanted to go home. Though if he had been away for a week, he now had no idea what state Gavin would be in when he got home. Or the state of the apartment. Hopefully Gavin hadn’t made too much of a mess in his absence.

***

The car ride was… bearable. Nines sat in the backseat, letting RK800 ride in the front with Lieutenant Anderson. He could make comments on the Lieutenant's driving but decided against voicing them. Partly out of courtesy, the other part was because he didn’t fancy walking. Gavin had previously made him walk home when he critiqued his driving too much. Wasn’t Nines’ fault that Gavin drove like a teenager at times. He inquired about the case files from last weeks incident. He wanted to know what became of it. Lieutenant Anderson tried to avoid talking the subject in all together, saying they can look over the files in the office tomorrow. As a deviant became involved it was a case he and RK800 had worked the follow up. Nines didn’t miss the looks RK800 gave the Lieutenant, nor the subtle glances back to him when the files were mentioned. There was something that was being concealed, he could sense it. He would just have to wait till tomorrow. From the rest of the way back RK800 and Lieutenant Anderson engaged in small talk. So not everyone completely hated their job. RK800 did most of the prompting. He spoke a lot about Sumo. The Lieutenant’s pet dog that RK800 seemed to have some fascination with. He soon tuned out their voices so he could review the conversation that went on between him and RK800. What RK800 seemed to be expressing, his own actions were such contradictions to what Amanda had said. RK800 had become more compassionate to his human… to his partner. His human didn’t stop his actions but that factor included an additional factor to play into events. This additional factor changed the entire dynamic of the scenario. He was cuffed to a table not to prevent him from leaving, but to give RK800 protection. RK800 when discussing the possibility of his own destruction, despite it happening previously, he showed upset and hurt at the thought. Not because he himself would be hurt, but he understood it hurt his partner. He was showing empathy. Empathy is a human emotion… Amanda said androids were incapable of experiencing emotions as humans do...despite what she said, he couldn’t refute his own evidence. RK800 clearly had empathy in his programming. If RK800 had the possibility to show empathy… as his later model… he must also have empathy or at least the potential to convey it. He made a mental note to take time to look for the opportunity to show empathy going forwards. As he considered it he felt a harsh spike in data causing pain in his chest. Amanda’s words seemed louder. If he followed that route he would be a failure. No better than his predecessor and he would be replaced. He quickly erased the proposal. Deleting the observation and the pain seemed to dull but it lingered. He had to sort through his data at some point. He marked time in his calendar to do so. He noticed the car had come to a stop.

“Well… this is Reed’s house. I’ll guess I’ll maybe see you both at work.” Lieutenant Anderson looked back to him. “He’s had a rough week so be prepared.”

“I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.” RK800 said in a positive tone.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. I wasn’t over the moon the first time your returned after I watched your brains get blown out.” Lieutenant Anderson glanced to RK800. “Just be prepared he may be in a worse mood than normal.”

“I understand. I will take necessary precautions when approaching Detective Reed.” He nodded. “Does he know I was reactivated?”

“No.” Lieutenant Anderson said slowly. “He doesn’t know you were at the precinct.”

“May I inquire as to why my location was kept hidden from him?” Nines asked.

“Because knowing Reed, he would have tried to break out of his hospital bed, hijacked a car for ‘police business’ and tried to find you.” He replied flatly. It didn’t take an android to know that sounded like the most probable outcome.

“Did you visit him when he was in hospital?” Nines figured he would be the most likely person given how much they interact. He received a somewhat confused and irritated look from the Lieutenant.

“I didn’t. His health insurance company took him to some fancy facilities out of town. Don’t know where he went, but they phoned each day to update the station.”

“So he possibly had no visitors?” He was trying to predict Gavin’s behaviour so he could prepare. “Does he have a next of kin? Did they visit him? It was my belief that humans have a designated fam-”

“Some people don’t have any kin left.” Lieutenant Anderson sighed sadly. Nines stopped his line of questioning. No kin left? RK800 gently reached a hand across in an attempt to comfort him. Looking back to Nines.

“Even after everything… Androids are not recognised as eligible to be named as ‘Next of Kin’. Even when people have no one they would rather name, they won’t accept us.” RK800 was clearly upset by the notion. Nines felt annoyed by this stubborn and illogical step. Given the higher percentage of population that lived alone but owned an android. It would be in their interest to keep them updated to prepare for their humans return. Also regardless of whether the androids felt anything visiting humans, humans benefited from having positive social interaction with familiar faces. Androids also held little threat to sick humans health as they didn’t carry diseases. “You should get going.” RK800 prompted him. Nines nodded to him and the Lieutenant.

“Thank you for the ride, support and advise. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

“I will if androids can decide not to murder anyone in the next 12 hours.” Lieutenant Anderson muttered. RK800 chuckled in response. Nines nodded and exited the car to the sidewalk. He heard the car drive away as he looked at the house. He slowly walked up the path to their front door. He tried to work out what he was going to say to him. This was the first time he had been destroyed and replaced. After running some simulations, Gavin’s reactions were deemed to random and emotional for him to prepare for every outcome. Taking a moment he knocked on the door.

“I don’t fucking want to buy anything! Piss off!” Gavin shouted from inside. Good to know he was in. Nines knocked again waiting patiently outside.

“Detective, it’s me.” Nines called out. There was silence for a few minutes.

“If you fucking say ‘Connor the android sent by Cyberlife’ I’m gonna send you back in pieces.”

“It’s Nines.” He replied quickly. He was surprised to hear a sudden rush of footsteps. The door was opened quickly and Gavin looked up to him in a small state of shock. Since the last time he saw him, Gavin looked to be in a lot better health but also looked exhausted. He was clutching a bottle in his left hand as he looked up to Nines. He then closed the door in his face. Nines took a moment to debate if he should reknock on the door. As he raised his hand the door opened again and Gavin looked up to him again. His expression resembling more usual cocky confident expression.

“You are really fucking late.” Gavin huffed nonchalantly him as he went back inside the house.

“My apologies. I was only reactivated within the last few hours ago.” Nines said as he stepped inside.

“Fucking Anderson loses his fucking android! The bastard comes back in a few hours! I lose mine and I have to wait a whole fucking week for no reason!” He ranted as he dropped back onto the sofa in front of the tv. “Were they giving you extra fancy add ons or some shit?”

“I was being held at the precinct.” Nines explained as he followed him in. Gavin slammed the bottle on a small table.

“Why didn’t anyone fucking tell me!?” Gavin shouted.

“The most commonly held belief was if you knew, you would break out of the hospital and make your way over to the precinct. Thus endangering your recovery.” Nines replied. Gavin stared at him for a few moments before sulking back on the sofa. Taking a swig from his bottle as he muttered something under his breath. Nines took some time to familiarise himself with the house again. No doubt he would have small chores to complete on his return. He scanned around the room. Much to his surprise, the place was actually tidy. There was no dirty dishes near the sink. No rubbish spilling out of the bin. I actually looked like Gavin had kept the place in order. That was really out of character for him. He looked to Gavin with a mixture of shock and confused, had the smoke really affected him that much? He started to scan him over to make sure he wasn’t an imposter. Gavin looked back at him, holding eye contact as he took another swig.

“Lost something?” He asked. Nines looked around the room. Nines shook his head as he finished his scan.

“I was expecting there to be…” He was trying to process reasons for this. Gavin was showing signs of a healthy human male. His identity checked out. Nines started to think back. Looking for any previous time Gavin displayed this behaviour. There must be something.

“You expecting mess for you to clean up?” Gavin chuckled looking rather smug. “Well Tincan, I actually got back and tidied the place up myself. Didn’t know when you were gonna make it back. Couldn’t let stuff build up.” Nines managed to find events that mirrored Gavin’s current behaviour.

“You are trying to prove your superiority to me and…” He paused. ”...You want me to associate this as a non working day.” Nines concluded, his voice betraying his surprise.

“Got it on the nose Tincan.” Gavin grinned to him. “Now come over here and watch tv.”

“But there… I....” Nines couldn’t have more time off work. He had been deactivated for a week. Who knows how much professional work had built up over that time.

“Okay Tincan, try this one. I order you to come over here. Sit down and watch tv with me.” His grin grew wider as Nines huffed at him. Gavin knew he couldn’t disobey a direct order. Regardless of how questionable the order was. Nines walked over a little defeated. Gavin watched him like a cat that got the cream. Nines sat down next to Gavin on the sofa and started to watch the tv. Somehow Gavin had found a strange gameshow where contestants had to run through bizarre obsticals. He remembered Gavin had watched this before and though Nines had no care for it. Statistically the entire contest was rigged, but it didn’t stop people trying and probably injuring themselves in the process. He relaxed a little and decided to review some of his quarantined files as he wasn’t going to focus on the show. Shuffling back he positioned himself in the corner of the sofa. He could hear Gavin shift his position and felt a weight press against him. He had moved round and was now leaning back against Nine’s chest. Nines looked to him stunned as Gavin then moved one of Nine’s arms to hold him around the waist.

“G-Gavin?” Nines stuttered as he tried to process Gavin’s intentions.

“Your arm isn’t comfortable there.” He said in a huff. Nines was too confused to respond, luckily Gavin continued talking. “I’ve also been stuck in a hospital bed for a week. The first few days I can’t remember.” He spoke softly. “The rest of them, I was just in a white room. Must of been on a private ward as I couldn’t see anyone else. Hell I couldn’t hear anyone else. Just the doctors and the staff.” he looked up to him. “I wanted you to visit… I was so pissed that you never tried…” Gavin curled up a little more against him. “I’ve never felt so alone.”

“I am sorry I couldn’t see you sooner.” Nines pulled Gavin a little closer. Increasing their proximity and trying to comfort him. “I promise the next time you are in the hospital, I will visit you.”

“You fucking better, or I’ll put you in hospital next to me.” Gavin forced a chuckle. Nines also chuckled as that scenario would be rather amusing. “Then the only guy I had to talk to was that fucking psychiatrist. He was so stupid. He didn’t listen to me at all.”

“Why was he stupid?” Nines decided to humour him.

“Because when I had my… episode… I know that I could hear your voice. You were the one that rescued me from that fire.”


	8. Chapter 8

Nines was taken aback. How could Gavin have heard his voice? He had been taken offline after the first altercation. There was no way he could have even of assisted him. If he had saved him, his model wouldn’t have been destroyed. He knew he had been destroyed in the fire, there was no other logical reason for his destruction. Amanda had told him what had happened. He knew human sensors could malfunction in times of stress or injury so the mismatch could be attributed to that. Either way, he was not online and Gavin must have been conscious in some form. Between the pair of them he had a higher chance of recalling events correctly. Something was better than nothing.

“What do you remember?” Nines asked softly. Gavin sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. Nines could sense he had been asked this many times over already.

“Right well… the thing is...I really hate fire. Like… I can’t be near big fires any way. Fireplace, open fires, campfire. If it is able to escape and cause damage. I hate it. Childhood fear, never really got over it.” Gavin started to say, bringing the bottle up to his lips as he took a long hard drink. “Speaking of childhood. You ready for the reason my life is so fucked up?”

“I wouldn’t say that Gavin. Your life is-” Nines tried to reassure him. But Gavin moved round and put a hand over Nines’ mouth.

“Shut up will you.” Gavin huffed at him. “I’m trying to open up here. I don’t need you trying to make me feel better.” Nines blinked a few times confused before slowly nodding once. “So are you gonna let me talk?” Nines nodded once more to show he understood. Gavin slowly removed his hand and settled back down. Nines would make sure not to interject.

“So anyway… I have a bit of a shitty life…” He continued, his eyes going back to the bottle in his hand. “Well… a really shitty life. Clearly so shitty that I get put in the hospital and not one fucking soul decides to visit me. Why do you think that is?” He glanced back to Nines. Nines stayed quiet, unsure if this was a genuine question or if it was rhetorical. Sensing the increased tension Nines opted to speak this time.

“I was told by Lieutenant Anderson it was due to your being taken to a remote location?” Nines guessed. Gavin rolled his eyes and groaned.

“He’s got a fucking car! Really that was his excuse for not checking in?” He grumbled. “Okay… quiz time Tincan. Tragic part number two. What does Anderson have in his house that I don’t? Or fucking most houses have that I don’t.” Nines thought for a moment. He started to scan the room and run an analysis as to what Gavin may be inferring. He was at a substantial disadvantage as he had never been to Lieutenant Anderson’s property. There were too many possible outcomes. He started to shift through the possibilities but even for him this could take a while. Gavin didn’t seem to want to wait for him to narrow down his option. “Damn… all that processing power and you miss the fucking obvious. Think human idiot.”

“Think human?” Nines repeated. He changed his search parameters away from utility and practicality to more sentimental values. He had a far shorter list to shift through this time given his limited research on the subject. Despite all his processing power, it wasn’t fast enough in Gavin’s opinion. His tone became more irritated. “Do you see any fucking photos in this room?”

“Photos.” That was something Nines could work with. He quickly rescanned the room, checking the other rooms from memory. He also completed a quick search on the human behaviour of keeping photos. Humans kept photos mostly for sentimental value. Photo’s tended to be taken to commemorate events and/or to preserve memories of a set moment in time. Allowing humans to look back on the image and triggering memories that can bring out emotions in the human. These photos could mean the world to one person but nothing to another due to the majority of photos holding special meaning to the the one taking the photo or the photos subject. As he finished reading, the results came back for how many photos he had seen in Gavin’s residence.

“In your house… I have seen you display 3 photos.” Nines recalled. “You have a large group photo from your graduation from the academy you trained to become an officer. You then have a photo from the first day you were assigned to the DPD… the only other photo you have on display is when you made it to the rank of detective.”

“Right… now you are getting somewhere.” Gavin chuckled as he drank more. “What do they all have in common?”

“They all have you in them.” Nines thought that was probably the obvious answer. Gavin let out a short laugh.

“A very good observation Tincan. They are all of me.” He looked up to him. Gavin was smiling but Nines could see it was to mask another emotion. “Okay harder question, who is missing from the photos. Given humans take photos of things that mean a lot to them. What’s missing?” Nines wasn’t sure how he would be able to tell what was not preserved in photos but he was going to try. Clearly Gavin wanted him to work this puzzle out himself.

“Humans take photos for a variety of reasons. It has become even easier with androids to take photos and document life events. Most people will have photos of their achievements, friends and…” He paused as it clicked. “...Family…” He looked down to Gavin. “You have no family photos.”

“We got there in the end.” He forced another laugh but his laughter trailed off.

“Why do you have no photos of your family?” Nines asked confused and concerned. Gavin relaxed against him, his tone more resigned. 

“You try finding them.” Nines didn’t understand what he meant at first. Not getting any more hints from Gavin he pulled up his personnel file. He started to read through Gavin’s file and checked all the sections where people tended to name family members. He was almost shocked that Gavin had no emergency contact, no registered next of kin, he didn’t have anyone on his file. He did a quick scan for a Mr or Mrs Reed in the Detroit database. A good handful of profiles and IDs were pulled up for Detroit. He looked through them in turn, looking if any of them had a son and had named him Gavin. His cross examination turned up empty handed.

“There are no traces on them in your contacts. Nor is there anyone in this city who could be your parents.” Nines looked down to him, pulling Gavin a little closer. “You live in this city alone.”

“Now here’s the fun bit.” Gavin tried to sound upbeat, trying to let his natural charisma carry him. But his tone sounded like a record about to scratch. “Try to find any mention of ‘Gavin Reed’ before my graduation photo.” Nines was growing more concerned as he started his search. He had access to many systems being linked with the DPD database. He scanned for Gavin’s name and lots of results turned up. Cases he’d worked on, news articles, an odd photo from someone else with him tagged him on a night out. He kept going back through. He found the time he made detective after a very successful and long planned drug bust. He went through his officer years, got back to graduation and then… nothing… no photos, no mentions, not a trace of him. It was like he didn’t exist before that point in time. Nines ran the search multiple times, not believing the results. He even tried searching for a few misspellings of Gavin’s name.

“Where are you?” he looked slowly down to Gavin. “You have no medical records… no school records… no registered address before…”

“I know… that’s because the Gavin Reed you know didn’t exist before then.” Gavin said, his tone had lost it’s cockiness. “I had a different name then.”

“A different name?” Nines queried.

“Yeah…” Gavin drank a little more. “I can’t remember what it was. I think I made sure to forget it given what happened.”

“What happened? Has this got something to do with why you dislike fire? I believe you used the phrase ‘the reason my life is so fucked up?’” Nines asked. Gavin started sniggering in his arms. Nines failed to see what was so funny. Though the alcohol may be starting to affect him.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you swear. You sound so stupid.” He giggled. “It’s like all posh and shit.” Nines took a few moments to replay the event. He guessed he could see the amusing side. He used a word normally used to communicate frustration or annoyance had been spoken with the completely incorrect inflection. It did sound rather odd.

“I’ll make sure not to repeat it.” He smiled softly. “Only on special occasions.”

“You better promise that.” Gavin grinned to him. “Promise me that when we have a really good day and we smash a case. You will swear.”

“I guess that wouldn’t be too hard to do.” He chuckled. The moment of humour had broken the slowly building tension and Nines was relieved for it. He could see warnings flashing up in the corner of his vision. His actions could definitely be considered more on the deviant side. Though something in him didn’t care. He far preferred seeing Gavin like this over his shouty grouchy version. How much damage could this actually do? Amanda would understand. Understanding more about Gavin’s past could be helpful in understanding his behaviour. Once he understood that, then he could find ways to make him less reckless. Then as a result, he wouldn’t be in harm's way as often. Reducing damages and contributing to an overall success. He had to refocus the conversation. “But I fear we are getting off topic.”

“Yeah… but that was so funny.” Gavin was still sniggering.

“So why can’t I find any trace of you before your enrollment at the police academy?” Nines asked trying to recover. He still needed answers and wanted to understand more about Gavin’s past.

“Okay, I want you to search for news articles for the headline…” He paused. “Oh come on… what was it called…” He rubbed his right temple as it looked like he was trying to recall something. “It had a stupid name… Oh yeah! Check for ‘Picture Perfect Life up in Flames’.”

“You sound rather enthusiastic about this.” Nines said rather confused. The title definitely didn’t sound very positive. So Gavin’s positive reaction was confusing. Either way he started to run his search. Gavin rested back against his chest as he searched. This one took a bit longer given the amount of papers he had to go through and find that specific phrase. He was almost irritated by the terrible headlines humans picked. Trying to romanticise tragedy. Slandering different people due to personal opinion. A campaign managing to push through a corrupt viewpoint to better the wealthy and convincing the working class it helps them. Humans spent a lot of time wasted on such fanciful frivolities. He eventually found a news report with that headline. “You sure you want me to read this?”

“Yes. This was the tipping point to what went wrong.” He looked up to him gently, as if to watch Nines’ reaction. 

“I will read it then.” Nines informed him as he closed his eyes. He started scanning the words while running the audio from the related television news report. The report told of a small family, Father, Mother and Child. The father of the family was well known and respected but there had been rumours it wasn’t the ‘picture perfect’ life the father had always pretended to be. The event described how raised voices were heard in the building. Arguing, glass smashing and the next thing the neighbors knew, a fire had broken out and was consuming the house. The fire department was called quickly and they managed to make it to the scene in time to be able to save the child. Unfortunately the mother and father were pulled out in critical condition. They had all been rushed into hospital. The father survived the night but the mother died from her injuries and the fire damage. The child was currently in police custody. “What has this got to do with?” He looked down to Gavin slowly.

“That was my family.” He said softly. Taking a swig of the bottle he hiccuped a little. Nines took a few moments to add this knowledge into Gavin’s file. He started to factor in how such an event could have an effect on Gavin’s life. He realised quickly the gravity of such an event.

“You lost your mother in a fire?” He said softly, pulling him closer. “What became of your father?”

“He was sent to prison, but he managed to get out due to some stupid broken law.” He grumbled. “By that point, I had been taken into the witness protection program. I had to testify against him for the abuse that he’d put me and my mother through.” He shuddered. “I think I’ve blanked out most of it. I can’t even remember my old name. After all that… I became Gavin Reed. I moved to Detroit… and in time I joined the police. I thought the fucker wouldn’t dare come after me then. I would be able to defend myself. Maybe one day I could put him back behind bars.”

“I never asked why you had joined the police force.” Nines pondered. “I assumed it was for some glory related reasons.”

“Well it wasn’t…” Gavin sighed. “It was so if I ever run into that fucker again. I will make sure he goes behind bars.” He went to have another swig but the bottle was empty. He looked at the bottle angrily, as if it was the objects fault for being empty.

“Would you like another drink?” Nines offered. Gavin looked back round to him suspiciously.

“You are meaning alcohol right? You aren’t gonna try to pull one of those healthy shits?”

“I do mean alcohol. I believe sharing your past will help you in the long run. It will also improve my awareness and be able to correctly predict your actions when faced with certain situations. This allows me to protect you better.” Nines reassured him.

“You think I need protecting?” Gavin looked up at him.

“As we are sharing thoughts and being honest. I have noticed that over the last few months you have become more reckless. Amanda has made it my priority for me to understand why you have increasingly acted more recklessly. I do not wish for you to come to harm and your actions have secured results. CyberLife are concerned that I’d…” Nines stopped. Amanda had warned him Gavin would get him killed. The errors in his programming had clouded his logic and he wasn’t able to protect Gavin. “I am sorry. I failed in my basic function to protect you.” He moved to get up and headed to the kitchen. Gavin started to protest.

“What the fuck are you on about? You got me out of that fire.”

“I couldn’t have done. You must be misremembering.” Nines insisted.

“You’re misremembering! I heard your voice. You brought me out of that fucking nightmare and you got me out of that store. I know you did!”

“Gavin, I was rendered offline in the fight. The firemen saved you and I was destroyed in the fire.” He pulled out a fresh bottle and removed the bottle top.

“No you fucking weren’t!” Gavin got up. Glaring at him angrily as he shouted. “Those fucking quacks tried to get me to believe my state of the art android. The most advanced combat model outside the military. Was knocked out by some fucking teen with a baseball bat?”

“Amanda told me-”

“Fuck Amanda! Fuck Cyberlife! Fuck you!” He stormed over to him. “You looked over the scene and did your calculations. You wouldn’t of made such a stupid mistake. I’ve heard you and Connor talk so much shit about the statistics and probability of actions. As much as I hate it, you have never been wrong!” He got into Nines’ face. “If you are never wrong, how could you miss something like that?” Nines tried to diffuse the situation.

“It was a freak accident. Something I didn’t and couldn’t factor in.”

“Bullshit! There is a reason they didn’t active you straight away. Fucking CyberLife are trying to cover something up. Trying to make me think you didn’t save me. Telling you that you fucked up. I know in my gut something isn’t right here.” He snatched the new bottle. “Tomorrow when we go back in. We are getting the truth about what happened.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone~
> 
> Thank you so much for all your support and Kudos! I'm so excited to see this hit 100 Kudos and I can't wait for this fic to hit 1000 views. I am gonna be updating this one a little slower. Health issues and other projects but I will aim to upload something every 2 weeks. 
> 
> I really hope you are enjoying the plot and the drama. I have got scenes I'm so hyped to write when the story reaches that point. So I just want to thank you all for your support. It means a lot and it has really encouraged me to write more~


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning Gavin had been sulking around the house. He now sat in the passenger seat staring out the window as Nines drove them to the station. He wasn’t too sure what today would bring the pair. Hopefully Gavin would be able to review the evidence from the incident last week. It would provide him the evidence that he needs and he would be able to move on from it all. Nines though couldn’t deny Gavin’s words had made him review what little he knew of the situation. Unfortunately reviewing his own memory had given him no new knowledge. He must have uploaded his memory just before they tried to apprehend the youths. He had nothing past that point except… that red wall. The red wall RK800 had informed him was a common sight deviants saw before they became deviants. He dismissed the wall, as he had confirmed he hadn’t broken the wall so he was no deviant. He just wanted to get back to work and to focus on his next mission. He had agreed to check in with Amanda at the end of the day. It was curious that she seemed to require more meetings. He would normally only check in in the evening once Gavin was safely off the bed. Maybe it was just because he was a new model and CyberLife just wanted to make sure there were no lingering issues. Possibly a teething process. He though didn’t have anything to compare the current chain of events with. He had no reason to question Amanda and CyberLife. He was a good, loyal and nondeviant android. He didn’t need to spend more time on this subject. Gavin continued to pout like a child. He was sticking to the silent treatment as they drove in. Nines knew how stubborn Gavin could be, he hoped he didn’t intend to keep this behaviour up for most of the day. Nines could feel smaller errors creep in. He couldn’t recall if this feeling was awkwardness or… could it possibly be seen as upset? He had spent the evening before removing the erroneous data as instructed by Amanda. Or at least he tried, on deeper investigation some of the data flagged up as vital for understanding and responding to Gavin. So he had moved that data to another folder, deleting what he could to try and bring down the interference level. Understanding and responding in the optimal way to Gavin’s emotions and requests was a priority as that would assist in his mission. He was supposed to protect him after all. After he ran a scan on the percentage of data that was deleted as Amanda had requested a percentage. He found out it was significantly lower than he had instructed. He couldn’t delete more without losing some of what he had learnt about Gavin so he had to find a solution. He had to mask the data so it showed as less interference so Amanda would be pleased with him. He then started to build a set of files withing his system. Naming them as mission focused and started to move all his information about interacting with Gavin. He changed the coding on them so his scans recognised them as evidence files. It was going to take him a little bit to get used to recalling them from this location. He completed another quick scan of his system and the percentage of rouge data and the report showed back a lower percentage. He was on target for what Amanda had set him. That was one less thing to be concerned about. He pulled up into the car park and soon found a space. It was only once he turned off the engine that Gavin spoke.

“Are you not going to tell me what’s been bothering you?” Gavin huffed. “Your light’s been yellow for most of this trip.”

“Nothing has-” His words slowed as Gavin was giving him a sour look. Nines wondered how long his light had been yellow.

“What’s bothering you?” Gavin repeated. He decided now is as good a time as ever to explain his situation.

“Well… our social interaction has been increasing and it has caused.... Errors in my system.”

“Errors? I thought you were supposed to be like the upgraded version?”

“Errors that have been building up as I have slowly been picking up more human tendencies and… the errors can cause me to mimic and understand human emotions.” He explained slowly. “I have been keeping a close eye on them and deleting the errors when needed. Given the recent incidents and your conviction around the chain of events. Some things don’t add up but without evidence. I currently cannot confirm the true course of events. I’m not sure if build up of errors have caused memory loss, though I do know some memories are lost when going between models.”

“So wait… you’ve been getting human tendencies and you are just deleting them?” Gavin raised his voice. “Did your bitch of a boss tell you to do that?”

“Amanda has instructed me to delete all erroneous data. I have been quarantining the data as it arrived to prevent it from interfering with my reasoning. I try to delete the folders regularly.” He admitted.

“You said try to delete?” Gavin looked at him, turning more to face him, his brow furrowed. “Why don’t you just delete everything?”

“Because some of the erroneous data that I’ve compiled helps my interaction with you. It allows me to connect and understand you with a higher probability of making correct deductions. I then have an increased chance of predicting your behaviour and moods so I can respond accordingly.” He explained his reasoning. He hoped Gavin didn’t feel betrayed by his actions. Gavin seemed to go quiet, looking away from him. It was times like this he wished humans had small lights to help signal their emotions. The one thing he envied, if it was possible for androids to envy humans, was that humans could hide their emotions and lie how they were feeling. Forcing expressions and saying things they didn’t mean. A capability androids were programmed without. The silence seemed to hold for ages, though it had only been a few seconds, 10 at most.

“So you didn’t delete everything because… you like to understand me?” Gavin asked a little clumsily.

“I find it very advantageous to be able to understand you.” He tried to stay professional. “It improves our efficiency as a team. It also allows me to offer the correct support for you in regards to you emotional state and behaviour.”

“So is that all I am to you? Just a thing you need to supervise and keep happy?” He could hear the hurt in Gavin’s voice. Nines didn’t process what he said next until after he’d said it.

“You are far more to me than that. I am restructuring my system so I can continue to make the best decisions to protect you. Your well being is my first priority, and you know CyberLife wouldn’t program me to say that. I just may act like I’m keeping my distance as I have been dealing with internal conflict that I could of been the reason you nearly died. It has been my greatest failing.” Nines said quickly. He started to panic as he realised the admission he had made. Gavin looked just as caught off guard. He decided to say everything. “I feel… guilty that I was unable to protect you. I can’t remember what happened… I can only go off of what I’ve been told. Currently there are two conflicting stories. One in which I failed to help you after you went into a panic. As a result I was useless in my primary function to protect you and I was destroyed in the process. I was informed of this by Amanda and CyberLife who had to send out another android to replace me. They would have received a police report as to what happened so I believe their version of events. I don’t need confirmation of my failure to protect you because that causes… more errors in my system… it could cloud my judgment and cloud my judgment and I could make that mistake again and I don’t… I can’t…” He tried to stop his voice from cracking. Gavin must have thought him a right idiot given he was supposed to be all professional and here he was having a system collapse.

“And because I wasn’t in my right state of mind… you can’t believe my side of the story… because of lack of evidence.” Gavin said softly to himself. “It’s not you don’t trust me is it?”

“I really wish I hadn’t failed you, I wish I had saved you as you claim but… yes… Evidence… or lack thereof.” Nines admitted. He took a deep breath and tried to stabilize his system. Gavin seeing him like this would weigh on his mind. He didn’t need anyone else seeing him like this, especially RK800. He would try to comfort him and encourage such behaviour. Stupid deviant. “I apologise for my malfunction just then. I will do my best to avoid such actions in the future.”

“You don’t need to apologise Tincan.” Gavin said softly as he lent over to him. “We both have malfunctions from time to time.” He looked at him with a determined expression. “Here’s what we are gonna do. You don’t want to know anything about what happened during the fire because you don’t want it confirmed you failed to protect me.”

“Yes.” Nines looked at him suspiciously.

“So I’m gonna look into what happened and what the reports are. If I can prove to you that you did save me. I am gonna present it all with evidence. If not… I won’t tell you anything that I find out and we can leave it at that. A stupid malfunction happened.” Nines thought it over. He wasn’t sure on Gavin investigating it by himself. His instinct was to assist him but… he understood Gavin’s logic. This was the best way to approach the situation. Gavin was a detective after all, this was his job.

“I can agree to that.”

“Good.” Gavin nodded. “Now let's get out of this car or people are gonna talk.” He pushed open the door and let himself out. Nines wasn’t certain sure what Gavin meant by ‘people gonna talk’ but chuckled at his suspicion. He got out the other side and made sure he locked the car before following Gavin in.

***

“What the fuck is everyone's problem?” Gavin snapped after the 4th person gave them a wide berth. Their eyes trained on Nines. “I was in hospital due to a fire, not because I was fucking contagious.”

“I believe they are avoiding me.” Nines admitted disappointingly as he followed him to Gavin’s desk.

“Avoiding? They look like they are about to shit themselves.” Gavin grumbled. “Why they avoiding you?”

“I received the same reaction after my reactivation. From what RK800 implied, there was a possibility when I reactivated I could of been... violent.”

“What do you mean violent?” He looked at him accusingly. “You mean you could of had a violent bug and I let you stay in my house while I slept?”

“I was held in an interrogation cell and monitored by RK800 and Lieutenant Anderson. RK800 explained it was due to them not knowing my mental state when I was destroyed. As they were unable to recover my memories they didn’t know how I would act on reactivation.” Nines explained. “I believe this may also of been a reason why my reactivation was delayed.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me this sooner?” Gavin shouted.

“I did not deem it important information at the time. I also didn’t want you to worry I might have had violent tendencies. I find it insulting to a degree to even imply I could harm an innocent human due to some error in my programming.” Nines explained as they reached his desk.

“I’d find it fucking insulting too.” Gavin dropped down into his seat. “Though… there must be some reason as to why they would suspect that behaviour. I’m gonna ask around later.” He mumbled as he turned on his computer. It hadn’t even logged in when Captain Fowler stepped out of his office, clearly noticing Reed’s entrance.

“Reed… RK900… Come into my office for your back to work talk.” He called across to them. Gavin groaned and pushed away from his desk and trudged over. Nines dutifully followed Gavin into the his office.

***

Fowler sat behind his desk looking over paperwork as Gavin and Nines entered. Gavin heading straight over to the desk. Nines ensured the door closed gently behind them. Though he could feel all eyes fall on them through the glass. Nines could deduce from the fact he had been summoned into the office that Gavin was not in trouble. If Fowler wanted to tell him off, he didn’t request Nines’ presence. Fowler himself seemed a little on edge like everyone else in the office that morning as Nines approached the desk to stand on Gavin’s right hand side. Fowler glanced across to Nines before focusing on Gavin and took a breath.

“You were in quite the accident last week.” He sighed. “Even though you were supposed to be having a day off due to injury.”

“Criminals don’t have sick days. I did what I needed to.” Gavin crossed his arms.

“I’m not going to go over what happened as I’ve seen the reports from the hospital. You continued to pick fights with the psychiatrist.”

“That quack didn’t know what he was talking about.” Gavin became defensive. “He tried to tell me my partner didn’t save me when I know he did. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Nines.” Fowler’s expression was mixed. Nines tried to understand why, was he hiding something. Part of him flagged up this was also the first time Gavin had never called him Nines in front of Fowler. He couldn’t help a small smile.

“I am not going to get into an argument with you Reed.” His voice tense. “I just want to see how you are and catch you up on what’s happened since the incident.” Gavin seemed to back down a little. “And… check in if you’ve noticed any difference or issues with your new android.”

“He’s fine.” Gavin huffed. “No obvious differences. What’s happened in the time I’ve been away?”

“Well… since the incident, public opinion of androids has dropped again. The story is that an android went deviant when confronted with the fire and started to attack the kids in the shop. This caused many injuries and the android involved was destroyed. No casualties were reported.”

“You mean no humans.” Gavin added. Fowler took a deep breath. 

“You have every right to be angry that your android was delayed in being returned to you.” Fowler was trying to keep his tone controlled.

“What I don’t get is fucking Anderson’s pet gets destroyed, his comes back in what? 8 hours? I remember seeing him get his head blown out in the evening and the fucker was back the next day.” Gavin started to pace.

“I can understand how frustrating this is. It was out of my hands as CyberLife wanted to ensure they fixed whatever caused your android to shut down. You were also in the hospital. What would you of done with it?”

“He would of least been company as none of you assholes visited me.” He snapped.

“Maybe your lack of visits is due to how you treat everyone in this station.” Fowler growled, his professionalism dropping for a moment. “I got regular updates on how much you refused the professional treatment recommended.”

“That’s because they were wrong about the whole situation. I know my partner and he’s dealt with far tougher things than a kid with a baseball bat. He got me out of that building.” Gavin slammed his hands on the desk. Fowler stood up to challenge him.

“You are inclined to believe that but facts are facts.” Fowler didn’t seem fully convinced in his words. “Anderson and RK800 investigated and followed up the leads and evidence we could. You are free to review it in your own time. For now, we have a fresh string of Red Ice cases that need your attention. Looks like the guy you took out was the ringleader we were looking for. The result of us dragging his ass in is a new criminal power struggle. We had more drive by shootings and bar fights than ever. Each filthy lowlife trying to climb to the top of the heap. We can’t let this spill out and harm the general public.” Gavin backed away from the desk and started to pace. Fowler slowly sat back down. “The recent cases are on your desk and we are going to make a press announcement soon to try and reassure the general public we are on top of this.”

“A press announcement?” He asked with a smirk. “Let me guess, I’m not allowed anywhere near that press announcement? Want me to take another day off?”

“Actually, even though you are a pain in the ass, I would like you to be there when we give the address. You have worked very hard on this case and deserve the recognition that goes with that hard work.” Fowler watched Gavin. Gavin seemed stunned, his smirk dropped as he just stared dumbfounded at Fowler. Fowler managed a nervous chuckle. “There is a reason we made you a detective. You help keep the streets safe, even if you chosen method is to be a bigger threat than the criminals we have out there.”

“It is an effective method. You did make the news last week.” Nines spoke up. He felt rather proud of Gavin. He deserved recognition for his hard work. Gavin looked round to stare at him. He coughed and managed to pull himself together. Shaking off whatever it was that had come over him.

“I did make the news. I kicked ass and took out a big player in this drug trade.” His voice filled with confidence. “I’m gonna make sure no punk gets any grand ideas of taking his place.”

“Good.” Fowler nodded. “If you want the report from last incident. Anderson and RK800 collated all the evidence… the little that we had and made a case. The youth involved are being charged with arson and attempted murder. They knew you were clearly in the building and still sent fire to the place. That’s being handed over to another department as ours would hang them out to dry with no chance of.” Fowler seemed to glance over at Nines,again that nervousness returned. Like he was scared of something. Gavin smirked a little.

“I wouldn’t want to see those punks anyway.” He headed to the door. “Don’t worry sir. I am gonna be one striking fear into those drug smugglers. You can count on it.”


	10. Chapter 10

Gavin left the Captain’s office beaming with the outcome. Nines followed him with an odd sense of pride. He was pleased for Gavin to get some good news after the week he had had. It was the confidence boost he needed. The precinct seemed to be settling back down into the normal swing of things. People were still giving his pointed glares but that didn’t bother him. That was their problem.

“Get me a coffee. I’m gonna get some stuff from Anderson about last week's case.” Gavin ordered. Nines nodded, normally he’d try to get a please but he’d let it slide today so Gavin can keep riding this high.

“Certainly.” He nodded and headed over to the breakroom. He could see Gavin headed over to Lieutenant Anderson’s desk. He noted RK800 was standing at attention. He chuckled as he watched RK800’s stress levels increase as Gavin approached. Anyway, he needed to get Gavin his coffee. He walked over to the machine. The officers in the seats hushed their conversation as he entered. He didn’t pay them any attention as he went to make the drink. But not paying attention to them didn’t mean he couldn’t hear them talking amongst themselves. Even though they were trying to whisper, he could hear every word.

“You think it’s okay?” One said to the other.

“I’m surprised they even let it back in the station.” The other replied rather bluntly.

“It can probably hear you.” The first said in a more panicked tone.

“What is it going to do? The Captain still lets Reed work here. It’s probably just babysitting him. He fucking needs it. He’ll probably throw them both out when Reed fucks up next.” He could hear a chair scraping back on the floor. “I don’t need any plastic protecting me. At least Anderson doesn't act like it has a stick up it’s ass.” Footsteps started to walk away from him. Nines glanced back over his shoulder to see the officer walking away. His gaze moved to the one sitting down.That officer sprung up from his seat, abandoning his drink on the table.

“Don’t worry… I’m sure you do good.” They stuttered before they quickly made their exit. Nines felt a mixture of what he assumed was insult and a factor of hurt. In previous trips to the breakroom for coffee people just ignored him. Continuing with their normal conversations as if he was invisible. That was what he was accustomed to and what he preferred. Whatever had happened, this wasn’t a simple thing of he’d been destroyed and come back. Something else had happened that shifted everyone to become hostile towards him. He sighed as he knew it was probably due to the incident, but he had nothing that could explain the behavioural shift. Hostility was expected but this was a higher level of hostility than normal. He collected the cup and placed a lid on it. Knowing their luck, they would have to leave before Gavin will finish his cup. Better to be prepared. He started to walk over to Reeds desk. On his way he was intercepted by RK800.

“It’s good to see you both back in the station.” RK800 tried to strike up a conversation. Nines did his best to be polite at least. RK800 was the only other entity that wasn’t giving him the cold shoulder.

“It is good to be back in action. Hopefully we will be able to put this entire event behind us.” He said blankly.

“Detective Reed asked to view the evidence of the incident.” RK800 followed him.

“He will be reviewing the incident alone.”

“Alone?” RK800 tone a mixture of surprise and confusion.

“Yes. I do not wish to review the event. I will focus on our next case and let Detective Reed gather what he needs to find closure for the ordeal he went through.” He didn’t want to be reminded of his failure. RK800’s light flashed yellow. That should have been the end of the conversation.

“But you don’t have a record of the events?” Why was he this persistent?

“I do not require a record of the events that lead to my destruction.” He said flatly as he continued to over to Gavin’s desk. RK800 quickened his pace and stepped in front of him, trying to block his path.

“When we got the report about a fire. A deviant android was reported. I was at the scene. I was there. I saw-” He was acting desperate.

“I don’t want to know what you saw!” Nines raised his voice. “Detective Reed is investigating the evidence. Anything you have, please give to him.” RK800 made eye contact with him. His expression changed from his normal helpless puppy look to a more focused mission expression. Alarm bells went off as Nines only just had enough time to react as Connor tried to grab his wrist, skin retracted. He quickly placed Gavin’s coffee down on a nearby desk and caught higher up RK800’s arm. He looked determined as he tried again but one swift movement and RK800 was pinned beneath him. There was a loud crash as they hit the floor. Nines avoided any contact with RK800’s hands as from his movement he was trying to force interfacing. His intention must have been to share evidence even though Nines had made it clear he didn’t want to know. Once he was down, RK800 didn’t struggle. They both knew it would be pointless. Nines was built stronger and could think faster than RK800. He was almost confused that RK800 would even attempt a physical altercation. The officers next to them were on their feet. Nines could feel all eyes on them both. None of them daring to intervene with the pin. No one except...

“Connor!” Lieutenant Anderson’s voice cut through the stunned silence. Nines could hear his heavy footsteps approach them. “Get the fuck off him Nines!”

“It’s okay Lieutenant… I provoked him.” RK800 tried to explain. Nines didn’t resist the Lieutenant pulling him off RK800. Nines brushed himself down and straightened his jacket as RK800 was helped up.

“Connor what did I tell you?” The Lieutenant scolded him.

“I was only trying to help.” He argued. Anderson looked to Nines for an explanation.

“I made it clear to RK800 that I don’t want anything to do with last week's incident. Detective Reed will investigate it at his own pace but I will not.” Nines said, his tone harsher than intended. Anderson gave him a strange look. It wasn’t angry… it was a look of pity. Pity? Why would he be pitied?

“Hey Nines! Did you spill my coffee?” Gavin called from his desk. Nines looked around and retrieved the cup on the side. Picking it up and holding it higher to prove its existence. Gavin gave him a thumbs up from his desk. Anderson was dragging RK800 away and muttering to him, probably scolding him for his actions. RK800 knew better than to try to engage in combat against him. His motive was still unclear. There couldn’t be anything that important that RK800 had that could not be given to Gavin. He filed the query away and shrugged the event off.

“Your coffee as requested.” Nines set the cup down on Gavin’s desk. Gavin smirked up to him.

“So any reason you decided to pin Connor to the ground?” He chuckled as he picked up the drink.

“He tried to force interfacing. I believe his intention was to give me evidence regarding the incident.” Nines explained. “I had made it clear I want nothing to do with it and he was to turn over all evidence to you.”

“I don’t know what he thinks he could add. I asked Anderson for evidence. Anderson said there was no official evidence. No security footage from inside the shop. Nothing from the androids involved.” Nines initial reaction was relief that his failure was not on record. But something also seemed incorrect about it. Gavin leant towards Nines with a smirk. “I think he’s lying.”

“Why would you suspect he would be lying?” Nines asked stunned.

“Gut instinct.” Gavin chuckled. “I suspect a cover up.” Nines could almost hear alarm bells. He leant in close to him.

“You realise the gravity of that accusation! You are accusing a police coverup of a crime. But what motivation would they have? What would they gain?” He asked in harsh hushed tones.

“That would all depend on what really happened that night.” Gavin leaned back to sip on his coffee. “If we knew that, I’m sure this would all make sense.”

“But Amanda told me what happened. She wouldn’t lie.” Nines said quickly. “CyberLife wouldn’t be part of-”

“What if CyberLife were the ones that put them up to it?” Gavin grinned. “I don’t trust your bitch of a boss. Especially as she’s telling you to literally delete yourself.”

“She’s not telling me to delete myself, just non-essential information that could-”

“Non-essential information that makes you understand humans better.” He sipped his coffee again. “But what if… hypothetically... you or another android did something in that store that caused them to try and cover it all up?” Nines’ vision was starting to glitch around the edges. 

“I don’t understand.” Error message after error message appeared at the edges of his vision.

“I know you saved me. Which means that by that logic, you weren’t knocked unconscious. So maybe something has happened that would have made CyberLife look bad.” Nines was conflicted like never before. The occasional question may have crossed his mind, but the idea CyberLife would actively deceive to this level? 

“CyberLife… they wouldn’t…” He tried to form an argument but the errors were slowing down his processing speed. Part of him though wanted to consider the possibility. He tried to shut it down. He didn’t want to think about this. If an android had acted up, it was possibly him. What had happened?! Why couldn’t he remember? There were too many errors. His vision was glitching more as he held his temple. “I can’t…” Gavin must have noticed as he was quickly on his feet.

“Nines! Shit! Shit! Shit!… I’m sorry! You don’t need to think about it.” He tried to pull him round. Nines was in no position to fight him as his head stung, his vision blurring as he was getting overwhelmed. He couldn’t process what was going on as he wanted to know but he didn’t want to know. Then he could hear Amanda’s voice sharp in his head. He didn’t want to disappoint her. He wasn’t a deviant. He was CyberLife’s finest. He started trying to manage all of the errors, trying to move them all to one place to manage. “Just sit down. I don’t think I could pick you up if you collapsed!” Gavin’s voice was frantic as Nines felt himself being repositioned. Gavin’s hands reach up to his shoulders and push down, trying to get him to sit down. A quick scan confirmed a chair behind him. He slowly lowered himself into the seat.

“I can’t… I don’t want to continue on this topic…” He held his head. Closing eyes so he could focus trying to calm the static in his mind.

“That’s fine… we don’t need to… I shouldn’t of brought it up...I’m just used to you... fuck... do androids drink? How the fuck do you calm down?!” He could hear Gavin panic. Some different errors flashed up. He should be concerned Gavin was now highly stressed. He could see he was stressed. At the same time Gavin’s reactions generated some sort of comfort. Probably more errors.

“I just need some space to process… I’ll be fine.” He tried to reassure him.

“You’re lights red and you’re really stressed. I’ve never seen you this stressed.” Gavin tried to look around his desk. Nines took a few deep breaths. He was a little puzzled how Gavin had reached that conclusion. Now was not the time though. He focused on a non-essential function, he started to mimic breathing. Focusing on trying to take slow and deep breaths. Breathing was not essential to androids but it gave him a function to focus on. It worked in a way.

“I will be okay. I just need to deal with these errors.” He started to run diagnostics to sort and file away the rush of errors. “I’ll deal with them later, there are too many for now.”

“Are you gonna be able to keep working?” Gavin crouched to his level.

“Yeah… I should be. We just need to avoid that train of thought…” He forced out as he finally started to turn the tide of issues. Starting to reduce their numbers. “I need to rationalise it out.”

“Okay… I’m gonna get up the files for our next case. The Red Ice case. Let’s focus on that.” Gavin started to type up some things on his computer. The tapping on the keyboard was comforting. The clacking sound was almost soothing as he started to get the results from his diagnostics, even if Gavin did apply too much pressure to the keys themselves. He ran a report to identify the errors and if there were any recurring themes or routes. The main point of contention for the errors was around his image of CyberLife and his relationship with them. The idea of suspecting CyberLife of criminal activity was bad enough, but considering and debating it had caused his systems to almost revolt against him. He shuddered at the conclusion that he couldn’t actively question or go directly against CyberLife. That must be a new feature they had built into him to prevent deviancy. It felt a little extreme, then again RK800 had proved them wrong before. He thought over his situation, he had to find a way to explain CyberLife’s possible involvement in a way that made the action positive. There had to be a sensible and logical reason CyberLife would create such a cover up. He pulled together what he could of his knowledge. The only thing that was confirmed was a deviant android lashed out at humans. Maybe the coverup was needed. Humans still hadn’t really recovered from the revolution attempts for android freedom. The media would have probably pounced on this opportunity to restart more drama. So it was probably best there wasn’t any evidence for them to exploit. It could have been due to the severity of the injuries, maybe the model involved was a newer one CyberLife were trying to push and this could cause damage. A little underhanded but not unheard of. He understood basic business. Either way… the coverup that CyberLife and the Police committed was probably for public interest. Nothing sinister at all. The police did agree to it after all… Nines was able to relax at long last as he had reasoned the possibility of a police cover up would only have been done to protect the public. Though underhanded, and not sure if completely legal, the only person who could dispute or have issues with it would be the one incriminated by such a thing. Their destructive message being silenced. Though the android involved had probably been destroyed by now. So nothing for him to concern himself about. He was able to manage the stream of errors and resolve most of them using his new found reasoning. He slowly opened his eyes and was relieved to see his vision had recovered. Looking around he noticed they had company.

“Reed, he’s awake.” Anderson was looking him over. Nines was a little startled he didn’t notice his approach. Which really was concerning given how heavy Anderson’s footsteps were. Anderson was standing in front of him, blocking him from being able to stand up. Looking around he could see RK800 was equally concerned. “Nines… what happened? You okay?” Anderson asked him softly. Nines was confused by this turn of events. He had never seen Lieutenant Anderson in anything other than his grumpy work persona. Now his rough expression had softened and was full of concern. Concern similar to Gavin’s but yet it seemed different.

“I am fine Lieutenant.” Nines responded. “There is no need for concern.”

“Now where have I heard that before.” Anderson chuckled. “So what caused you to have to sit down and make Reed’s voice go up a pitch?”

“Shut the fuck up!” Gavin snapped. He was right, Reed’s voice was a higher pitch than normal. Nines wasn’t sure how or even if he wanted to answer. He didn’t want to tell Anderson that Gavin suspected they were hiding something from them. As he didn’t reply immediately Anderson sighed heavily.

“I know you androids think you don’t have emotions, but we both know you’ve developed them.” He whispered, holding eye contact with Nines. “You may be a little bit taller than Connor, but I can read your expressions as easily as I can read his. I know something is bothering you but you don’t know if you can or if you should talk about it. Because talking about it will mean admitting something you aren’t ready to face yet.” Nines tried to keep a neutral expression. Realising his silence was still an answer he quickly looked down at his hands. Was he really that easy to read? Was it that obvious he was in distress? “You don’t need to say anything now. Focus on your mission. You know where I sit.”

“I’m here for you too.” RK800 piped up.

“Don’t worry, I’ll send him to walk Sumo if you want your privacy.” He stood up and looked to Gavin. “I think he’s gonna be okay. He snapped out of whatever it was.” Gavin got up from his desk and quickly moved round to him. Slightly pushing Anderson out of the way.

“You okay Nines?” He asked softly. “You really scared me. I was worried you were going to shut down.” Nines could hear the sincerity in his voice. He reached up gently to brush his cheek.

“I’m sorry for scaring you. I’m alright now. I just got overwhelmed by errors… but I managed to deal with them. Thank you.” He managed a smile to him. “Now let's focus on our next mission.”

“Yeah. I’ve pulled up the files and want to run them past you.” Gavin straightened up and walked back round to his desk.

“What you all looking at!” Anderson shouted at the office. Nines realised his malfunction had attracted the attention of most of the precinct. With Anderson’s intimidation lots of people turned back to their work. Anderson seemed to scan the room to make sure. “Come on Connor. We have shit to do too. Let’s head out.” Anderson ordered. He headed off with RK800 in tow, leaving Nines with the offer of a space to talk. He was trying to find the hidden meaning behind the offer, seeing him with RK800. He was able to recognise his concern must have been similar to a family like bond. He had overheard RK800 did refer to him as a brother. Maybe it was this that Anderson felt like he had a duty of care for him because of RK800? He definitely treated him as if he was more human and not just a machine. He felt something odd shift inside of him. A few errors popped up but he knew Anderson had been dealing with RK800 for a long time, he also knew how RK800 worked and was able to predict his moods and respond in kind when needed. They had formed a deeper relationship, so Anderson was probably the best human for reading and understanding androids. He was also one of the reasons RK800 had become too human and went deviant. This was a dangerous set up yet… he suddenly felt like it wasn’t just him and Gavin in this mess. They had allies… and Anderson was the only person who could possibly understand what Gavin was going through when he got destroyed. It was curious, for two people that acted like they hated each other, they had a lot in common.


	11. Chapter 11

They had spent most of that day in the office. Reviewing pages and pages of reports. Gavin had complained and groaned about the amount of paperwork that this new project incurred. There were a lot of small pockets of gangs that could rise up. Though the biggest threat seemed to be a gang that called themselves ‘Knuckle Dusters’. They very much did as they said on the tin. The group were primarily known for starting bar fights, assault, battery, destruction of property (mostly androids) and murder. They were not as widely known for getting mixed up in the drug trade. Though knowing the main gang that used to run the drug rings in Detroit had lost its leader, they could try to muscle in on their turf. They also had a high number of known associates so this was probably the best place to start. Nines got up again and made his next trip to the break-room. Carrying yet another coffee cup across the room and placing it on Gavin’s desk. It had moved past the normal lunch hour. He was starting to get concerned for his human’s health. As much as he liked Gavin’s work ethic when he got going, he couldn’t let his human skip meals. He may need that energy later.

“Detective. I think you should take a break.” Nines suggested as Gavin picked up the fresh coffee. “You need to get something to eat.”

“Can’t you just get me something?” Gavin asked as he scrolled up on his computer. His eyes not leaving the screen.

“I believe the mental break will do you good.” Nines tried to insist. He switched to do a quick scan of Gavin. All his vitals were average for a man of his age and build. His stress was slightly on the higher side so the break was more needed.

“I’ve had enough time off. I don’t need more break time.” Gavin huffed as he drank more. Nines sighed and walked round to him. Looking over Gavin’s screen, he had 5 reports open. Each one was a file on known members of the Knuckle Dusters. “I need to remember these guys. I need to learn their faces so if we ever run into them, I’m not caught off guard.”

“How many faces have you been trying to memorise?” Nines asked. Gavin lent back in his seat, running a hand through his hair as he thought.

“I’m pretty sure I’m up to like 15 now.” Gavin replied, taking another sip.

“15 faces you are trying to commit to memory?” Nines was a little surprised. He wasn’t sure if it was humanly possible. “How long have you been trying?” Gavin looked lazily to a clock.

“Erm… 10 minuets?” He shrugged. “Don’t worry, I remember stuff like this.”

“Well I hope your studying does yield results.” Nines was still determined to get him up away away from the screen. “I will save all the files to my drive. Then I will be able to recall them quickly should you need more of the detailed information.

“Thanks. I just wanna make sure if I see one of these fuckers I’ll know it like that.” He snapped his fingers to emphasise his point. Nines got the idea. Gavin swiped across his screen as the photos slide off to one side and were replaced by another 5 faces. Nines noticed him pick up a pen and started making small notes down on the page. Small bullet points that noted down key features next to names. Nines was pleased he wasn’t just staring at the files in front of him. It was proven that writing and copying down information with a good visual stimulus aided memory and recollection.

“You need to eat Detective.” Nines tried to push the point. Gavin didn’t look at him. He had to find a way to appeal to his current work mindset. “How about we go out for a drive around the area the gang normally operates in?” Nines suggested, scanning Gavin’s face for a reaction. Gavin looked up to him for a few moments as he considered it. He could see him thinking it over, the positives, the negatives, weighing it up against his current task. Wondering if he knew enough to go out looking for them. He thought it all over before smiling up to Nines.

“Sure. That sounds like a good plan. I’m gonna finish up these notes.” Gavin looked back to the screen and started scribbling down the details a little faster. Nines smiled as he was rather pleased with himself. Managing to coax Gavin out of his workaholic attitude was always a small victory for him. He very much had adopted the ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’ mentality as once he was off the clock he wanted nothing to do with work. That time was for him, the sofa, the tv and a few bottles of beer. Nines walked round to sit down in a seat opposite him.

“I’ll take this time to send a report. Amanda has requested I keep her for frequently updated on our cases.” Nines settled down.

“You probably shouldn’t tell her about earlier today.” Gavin said quickly looking at him.

“But I am to record and send feedback about all system faults as it could have been an issue with this model that will need fixing. I do believe it was a software issue and could be patched…” Nines words slowed down as Gavin moved his chair round from behind his desk to face Nines.

“Let me say this again because I wasn’t clear enough.” Gavin looked at him. “Don’t tell her about what happened earlier.”

“I don’t understand. It could have been a fault with this model. It may-”

“It wasn’t a fault with your new model.” Gavin snapped.

“Detective, I’d hold your opinion in higher regard if you had more experience with androids. I’m sorry but I do believe it was a bug.”

“I don’t need a degree in whatever the fuck the smart asses that program androids have to know your freak out wasn’t a glitch. It was because you thought CyberLife had done something unlawful.” Gavin prodded at Nines’ chest. “I think they built that in that if you so much as thought a bad thing about them, it would give you such a headache that you would have to believe they were the salt of the earth.”

“I…” His voice glitched slightly which worried even him. “I am sure whatever happened in the incident CyberLife acted in the best interest of everyone involved. We may not be able to understand their actions, but we must accept they were for the greater good.”

“What if I said I don’t think their version of the ‘greater good’ is the best option?” Gavin lent back in his chair. “But instead of chasing this round and you possibly freaking out again. When you see that bitch of a boss of yours, ask her this. There were 4 androids in that store the day of the incident. According to her. What happened to each one?”

“I will ask her.” He nodded. “Though I have a question for you Detective.”

“Sure, what you got?” Gavin reached back round his desk for his coffee.

“If there was a cover up, not saying there was, but if hypothetically there was a cover up. You must have reached the conclusion the DPD are also co-conspirators in the incident. How can you, with good faith, continue working for them if they could have lied about that event?” Gavin took a long sip of his coffee.

“This is the difference between you and I. Where you find it hard to even imagine CyberLife taking part in something this shady. I know the DPD would agree to something like this. It’s the question about what is the greater good. Because people can do really shady and messed up shit but for the right reasons. That whole uprising and the whole deviant androids thing. If humans were treated like that. Lashing out and killing their attackers, morally bad thing but if done to protect someone you. You do a horrible thing for a noble reason. So I am under no illusion that the DPD are covering up something. I fully believe you saved me from that fire and they want me to believe you died. So the question becomes… why? What is so terrible they have to cover that up? Why is believing someone else saved me from that fire preferable to you saving me. Once I work that out, I’m gonna blow this case wide open.”

***

“You wanted to ask me a question?” Amanda said gently. Nines had found Amanda tending to her roses. She made sure they were all watered and pruned correctly. When Nines had entered the garden and found Amanda by the roses. He had taken this as a good sign. It was clear she was in a better mood today than previous visits.

“Yes, though I am sorry for the subject of the question.” He looked to his hands for a few moments.

“What concerns you? My role is to keep open communications between yourself and CyberLife. If something is troubling you, we need to know.” She turned to him. Her eyes meeting his, her expression seemed to soften as she noticed his nerves. “What is it RK900?”

“It’s about the incident. I understand what my fate was during the event. Though, Detective Reed seems to suspect something else happened.” He said slowly. Amanda scowled a little for a moment.

“Detective Reed was under intense stress during the incident. You must understand that humans have wishful thinking. They remember what they want to remember.” She said calmly. Nines felt something twinge a little. Shaking his head at the suggestion Amanda didn’t know something about the case.

“I understand that but he has brought up a few points that do seem rather illogical.” Nines continued. Amanda slowly put down the watering can and walked over to him. Nines was more confused as her expression seemed to soften even more to the look of concern.

“And you have come to me to alleviate this burden of inconsistencies. I imagine the logical flaws must be causing you some distress.” Nines felt a small wave of relief. She did seem to understand, maybe she will be more cooperative.

“It has been causing me some… minor discomfort and the evidence that has been collected regarding the incident is so little.” He confessed.

“What exactly has caused you this discomfort?” She asked gently, reaching up to his cheeks, slowly tilting his head side to side to examine him. Nines had no issue letting her do this.

“In the store… there were 4 androids present at the time of the incident. I know I was destroyed during the fire.” He recounted. “My question is, what happened to the other 3 androids involved in the incident? I find it hard to believe that they were all destroyed in the fire. There must have been some sort of memory or footage recoverable from any of the androids. There was also no security footage from the store either.”

“Before I answer your question RK900. What is your current explanation for the lack of evidence?” Amanda asked.

“I do not wish to answer that question.” Nines said quickly. Amanda pulled back a little bit.

“Why do you refuse me RK900?” Her tone sharper.

“I do not wish to say something that could…” he couldn’t tell her he suspected CyberLife of covering it all up. He couldn’t accuse her of covering up the crime. He could feel his systems start to whir. If she suspected he disagreed with her and with CyberLife, would he get to leave this garden? Would they allow him to continue. They were able to upload an old memory to a new model. If he accused them, they might completely wipe him. None of these thoughts used to worry him. He was more than happy for CyberLife to patch him up and fix his files, but he knew Gavin wouldn’t be happy. He didn’t want to hurt him again.

“I’m waiting RK900. Finish your statement.” Nines didn’t need to look up to know there were clouds on the horizon.

“I do not wish to suggest criminal behaviour from those who act to uphold it.” He managed to say. “The surprising lack of evidence after a weeks time lapse makes it look like there was some sort of cover up.” Once he started, Nines couldn’t help but continue. “The fact my reactivation was delayed by a week. Detective Reed being confined to a hospital receiving no visits for the same timeframe. The lack of physical evidence and witness statements. No video or audio recordings from inside the building of that event, not even security footage on the lead up to said event. If I didn’t trust the DPD. I would suggest a coverup has been completed while me and Detective Reed were unavailable and we are not to know the true sequence of the event.” Amanda stood in silence for a few moments after Nines had finished. She hummed softly as she turned back to her roses.

“I can understand your concern. Is it just with the DPD?” She asked. Nines knew what he needed to answer at this junction.

“I believe so. Humans are easily scared and it only makes logical sense something happened during that event that would have negative ramifications should the public be made aware of such an issue.” Nines stayed focused.

“I can see why you would reach that conclusion. I cannot comment on the stance of the DPD but I will answer your question. Out of the 4 androids that were there. Your old model was lost in the fore and so their memory unrecoverable. The store's android was also destroyed in the fire that was started. As for the other two androids, one of them was severely injured and later crushed under some debris. The final android was the one that went deviant as it suffered massive emotional turbulence at the scene before it. It lashed out and harmed many of the humans, not once turning to assist the others. It managed to escape the store but was shot on sight by the DPD. Due to the accuracy of the shot, we were unable to retrieve it’s memory. The store security system all ran internally. Nothing was being saved or upload so when the physicals were destroyed in the blaze. There was no security footage to recover. Does that answer your question?”

“Yes. Thank you Amanda.” Nines felt so much more at ease now. He could tell Gavin what Amanda had explained to him. “From that I can draw the conclusion that another rouge android, especially one with access to fire, would be very bad publicity and could lead to panics.”

“You understand.” She smiled. “So the DPD may have been trying to protect the public from the truth.”

“Thank you Amanda.” Nines nodded. Then something crossed his mind. RK800 said he was there at the time and he wanted to share footage. Surely if RK800 had seen something, it would have been submitted into evidence. “RK800 told me he was at the scene and saw it play out.”

“Has he interfaced with you regarding this?” Amanda asked quickly.

“No I have not. I do not need to be reminded of that event.” Nines replied, but inside his head, part of him wanted to know what RK800 saw.

“Good. If he had seen something of interest. I’m sure it would be submitted into evidence.” Nines nodded as he agreed with her.

“In the meantime, I have been assigned a new case with Detective Reed. We are going to be focusing on the Red Ice issue in the light of the arrest made taking the kingpin down. We are going out to monitor a small gang and see if they want to grow in size and control more land.” Nines reported. Amanda looked more content.

“This sounds like a mission you can both really make a difference in. Do not let me down.”

“I will not Amanda. I must return quickly as we are going to complete a stake out.”

“Then let me keep you no longer. I hope your answered question helps you both put this all behind you.”

“Yes Amanda.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thanks for sticking with me. I've been rather ill these past few weeks so this chapter is a little late. I hope you enjoy it. Everyone stay safe out there!


	12. Chapter 12

Nines was thankful Gavin happily left his desk once he had completed his report. Grabbing his jacket the pair made their way out of the precinct. Nines took the drivers seat and Gavin climbed into the passenger side.

“So Nines, where are we off too?” He asked as he pulled his seat belt across to click in it.

“Well for lunch I was thinking of going to a small take away a few blocks from here. I normally don’t approve of you eating such grease filled food, but I feel it appropriate as an apology for causing you to panic earlier.”

“Panic? I didn’t panic.” he said quickly. “I knew you would be alright. You are… always alright.” He grumbled.

“Either way, I suffered a malfunction and I want to make up for it.” Nines said firmly.

“No way. You didn’t want to talk about the thing. I talked about the thing and caused your systems to freak out.” Gavin argued. “Isn’t there that other food place in the same area? The one that does the fresh sandwiches?” Nine’s completed a quick scan of the area map.

“There is one of those establishments in the area we need to investigate.” He confirmed.

“Then we’ll go there.” Gavin folded his arms as Nines started to drive out of the parking lot. He took care not to hit any cars on his way out and took far more time than Gavin normally would.

“Are you sure Gavin?” He queried as he came up to a turning point.

“Yeah I’m sure now stop arguing. I’m gonna attempt to be healthy for once.” He huffed.

“Then I will take you there for lunch.” Nines felt himself form a small smile. He had wanted Gavin to eat better for ages. A diet of fast food and coffee was not ideal for any human. He was actually surprised he was in as good a shape as he was given his diet and lack of regular exercise. “I also scanned the area and found the best place for us to park to complete a stakeout. It may not be the nicest place to sit for a few hours, but it provides plenty of cover and a good vantage point to observe.”

“Good. We don’t want them knowing we are onto them quite this early. Though I can’t image a gang trying to be subtle when they are pushing for territory.” Gavin looked lazily out of the window. 

The pair sat in silence for a chunk of the journey as they drove around the town, driving past the still destroyed gas station. Gavin decided to restart the conversation. 

“So how did the discussion with your boss go?”

“My talk with Amanda was… informative.” Nines replied. “She seemed pleased that we had a new case to work on.

“Did you ask her the question?” Gavin asked.

“I did ask.”

“And what did she say?” He looked to him.

“She first asked me for my deduction on why their was a lack of evidence. I first refused to answer her and she immediately became hostile.” He recalled.

“You said no to your boss?” Gavin sounded like he was caught off guard. “And she got pissed?”

“She was definitely not happy with my disobedience to her. I wasn’t sure what action she would take as it was uncharted territory. So I decided not to push further. I offered her my theory of a suspected cover up. Reviewing the conversation. She did… in her own way… confirm that a cover-up by the DPD made sense. She though didn’t give a strong indication if that is what happened or not.” He was puzzled by her lack of clear answer on that point. He guessed CyberLife would only be concerned if they were in the firing line. “She did though confirm the status of the 4 androids.”

“Alright, I don’t buy that she isn’t part of the cover up as she got pissed at you.” He crossed his arms. “But what does she say happened to the 4 androids?”

“She confirmed that I was destroyed in the fire. She said the store android was also destroyed in the fire. One of the androids was crushed and destroyed as the building collapsed. The 4th android was the one that went deviant. They managed to make their escape out of the building but were later shot and destroyed by the DPD.” Nines explained as he drove.

“And so that’s why we don’t have any footage. Because the androids that could of given us eye witness reports were all destroyed so their memories couldn’t be used.” Gavin sighed. “And there was no CCTV.”

“The CCTV system was internal to the location. They did not have any external uploads or backups off site so when it was destroyed, there was also nothing to recover.” Nines chimed in.

“That’s such bullshit!” Gavin cried out in frustration. “This day and age there has to be some sort of record. Wait… didn’t Anderson’s bot say they had something?”

“RK800 said he was summoned to the incident after it was called in. As an android had been reported, I imagine he arrived with Lieutenant Anderson.”

“Fuck!” Gavin shouted as he kicked out at the car.

“Gavin, please refrain from taking your frustrations about the case out on the car.” He scolded him.

“That fucker said he arrived there too late to report on anything useful. But his plastic pet tells you that he saw something helpful. What the fuck are they trying to hide?” Gavin ranted. Nines was about to scold him again to use his inside voice, but he registered what Gavin had said. Anderson, a human was fully capable of lying and deception where RK800 would be unable to lie, if only he hadn’t gone deviant. He didn’t know how much that had effected RK800s ability to deceive. But at that same time, Anderson did not come across as an untrustworthy person. The way he treated RK800 and also himself. The fact he had come over to assist him during his minor breakdown. Offering a safe space to talk about thinks. Anderson’s behaviour indicated he wouldn’t lie without some other motivation present. He pulled up outside the place Gavin was going to get lunch and paused. Looking to his partner.

“You said people are able to lie for the perceived ‘greater good’?”

“Yeah! And for whatever reason the bastard thinks it’s better I don’t know what happened.”

“Yet following that logic. RK800 believes I should know what has happened… but if he knew something that would help the case. He should of submitted it into evidence.” Nines reasoned. Gavin, who looked like he was about to kick the car again, paused suddenly.

“So what you’re saying is that he thinks you should know what happened. But whatever happened Anderson either disagrees with us knowing, or it could destroy their cover story.” Gavin thought it over.

“Now you have a new line of questioning to pursue when we return to the station, please can you eat something?” Nines asked. 

“Sure.” Gavin started to get out of the car. “Food will help me think faster.”

“That’s not what I-” Nines started but Gavin had already closed the door behind him and headed inside to buy food. Nines rubbed his temple gently. His human was so erratic at times. He was sure if he got something shiny and dangled it in front of him, he would become fixated with it. Maybe he should try that the next time he needed Gavin’s attention. He had some time to review the files about the gang himself. He looked around and observed his surroundings. He hadn’t been out in public like this in a while. Though he definitely didn’t miss the way people ignored him. There were a few less androids out today. Most of them chaperoned by their human. There were the regular joggers and shoppers. Androids following them obediently, as they should. He did start to wonder how humans treated them. He observed one duo, a man and his android on what he could assume from the androids model and attire was assisting in fitness. The android had a female appearance and the human owner seemed exhausted.

“I don’t think … I can… complete this Julia...” The man panted as he lent forwards and rested his hands on his knees. The android walked round and pulled a small bottle off of her belt.

“You are doing really well Luke.” She smiled offering him the bottle. “You have completed 2.3 miles out of the 3 you wanted to complete.” He reached forwards and took the bottle from her.

“I’m so tired.” He groaned as he straightened up. Opening it and draining the contents. The android looked around.

“I can see your heartrate is elevated and you are showing signs of exhaustion. We can take a short 5 minuet break and sit down on a bench for you to catch your breath before we complete your run.” She offered, putting her arm around him.

“Thank you. You always look out for me.” He lent against her as the pair went to sit down on a nearby bench. “How many days are left?” The android had a small pause as their light flickered from blue to yellow and back again.

“You have 67 days left until you wedding day.” She responded. The guy nodded and held out a hand which the android placed a fresh water bottle in. “If you keep up this pace. I know you will reach your goal.”

“Thanks Julia.” He relaxed on the bench. “I don’t think I’d be able to get through this without you.”

“I am happy I’m able to support you reaching your goal. I can see your physical fitness and build has improved since you started.” She said softly to him.

“I wanted to lose weight for a long time for her. Get all trim and such. I know she didn’t mind… she say she didn’t mind but… I want to do this.” He took a swig of the bottle.

“I’m glad I have been able to keep you motivated to complete your goal.” The android replied. The human looked to her and there was a moment before he looked away sighing. She noticed this. “Are you alright Luke?”

“Yeah… I just wish… humans were this easy to talk to.” He stretched and stood up. The android mirrored him.

“You still have time left for your break.”

“Let’s get going. Gotta finish today's run and get home for dinner.” He said a little half heartedly.

“I understand Luke. Let’s go.” With a nod the pair set off jogging side by side. Nines watched the pair go as something about the exchange made him feel uneasy. He reviewed the interaction he had just seen. On one level the interaction was a completely normal interaction between a human and their android. He tried to work out the unsettling factor as the android had given all the right answers to him, yet the human seemed unhappy with their responses. He reran the scenario as if it were him and Gavin. Almost immediately he identified the differences. The android responded as programmed but seemed to be unable to understand or recognise the emotional discomfort the human was feeling. Or rather they only noticed it when the human showed very obvious signs of upset. They did not see or hear the subtle moments that indicated the human’s own insecurity. As a result the human tried to reach out to the android but only hit a wall. They said when they were programmed with and nothing more. He though over how RK800 had become so attune to Anderson’s mood and body language he could predict and act on emotions that even he couldn’t read. Despite having the superior technology and capabilities, RK800 was able to read the subtle signs and tells of Anderson that alluded Nines. He might of been programmed with the ability to learn and adapt to body language due to being part of the RK production line. Yet it seemed to be the development of expressing such human emotions was the markings of a deviant. Nines could start to feel his head hurt as errors started to flair up again. He was not a deviant, it just so happened that being able to understand and cater to Gavin’s emotional state made them a more efficient team which in return gave them a higher chance of success. He was not a deviant. He was efficient. He only needed to understand Gavin’s emotional need and no one elses.

“Nines? Are you okay?” Gavin asked concerned as he sat down next to him. Nines had been so wrapped up in his thoughts he’d missed the sound of the car door opening. He looked to his partner and nodded.

“I was just processing that not all androids are able to read and respond to the subtly of human emotions.” He said softly. “But androids that can and act on emotive impulses are normally later classed as deviants with violent tendencies.”

“For the record… I’m shit at picking up human emotions.” Gavin opened his wrap. “It took me so many years to discipher the nonverbal bullshit people do without even knowing it. So many of them thought I was really stupid, or I was just an asshole…” He started eating. “So I guess I became the asshole of the group. If people expected me to behave and treat me a certain way, why not act up to it. It meant people were more blunt with me. Told me what they thought, good and the bad.”

“So humans struggle with this understanding too?” Nines queried.

“Yeah. We totally do and we also are really good at making situations so much worse when we do.” He chuckled. “I’m kinda used to the role now. It works and it does mean I get left alone a lot more. I enjoy just being able to focus on my work without distractions.”

“And then I was assigned to you.” Nines teased.

“Yeah!” Gavin chuckled. “Who’d of thought I’d get on far better with an android than humans? You are straight with me and don’t pull any of that secretive bullshit.”

“Well in the spirit of being completely blunt. We need to head over to the stakeout spot if you don’t want to look suspicious.”

“Let’s go! I wanna see how many of these punks I can recognise.” Gavin cheered as he continued to eat his lunch. Nines, satisfied that his human was eating, pulled out of the parking spot and continued to drive them round to the spot he had selected earlier. The spot sat in the shadow of a long since abandoned house. There had been no confirmed residents there for a good few months and the place was marked up for sale, but even those signs were broken and battered. Gavin had gotten out of the car to pull the chain-link fence open to allow Nines to drive into the small area. He parked up next to an abandoned car as Gavin pulled the gate closed behind him. Sure they looked suspicious now, but they weren’t looking to catch anyone now. Just be in position so as evening rolled around, they could observe any suspicious activity and hopefully find out some more information on their target gang.


	13. Chapter 13

“Well… another successful stakeout…” Gavin yawned as he stretched in the passenger seat. “A good round off to a busy week. He pushed open the door and climbed out of the car.

“I think we have gathered enough information to identify their members on sight.” Nines turned off the engine. “I’ve also been able to record and decipher a lot of their slang. We will be able to seamlessly pass by any of their excuses for security.”

“Yeah… yeah…” Gavin stumbled over to the front door with another yawn. He reached into his jacket pocket and fished around for his keys. Nines watched with mild amusement as Gavin struggled to find them in his pocket and then tried and failed to get the key into the door lock. He walked over to him and gently took his hand, guiding the key into the lock in one swift movement. There was a satisfying click as the key turned. “I could of done that.” Gavin said as he looked up to him.

“I know you could have.” Nines chuckled. “I just would rather get you to bed as quickly as possible. All these long days and late nights are getting to you.”

“They are not getting to me.” He pouted as he pushed open the door. Nines did a quick scan over him. His vitals were fine but he was starting to show signs of exhaustion for being awake pushing on 18 hours. All the textbook signs were there. He’s been getting slower, more sulky bur could have a far shorter temper, Nines was sure his key intervention had just prevented them having to buy a new front door.

“Of course not, but I’m still putting you straight to bed.” Nines sighed as he followed him inside. “You haven’t been getting full night sleep.”

“That’s because of the stupid nightmares…” Gavin looked at him, wanting to change the subject as a small cocky grin formed as he chuckled. “Are you really gonna make sure I stay in bed?”

“You need your rest Gavin. I don’t care that it may be the end of the week and you can have a lay in tomorrow. You are not staying up any later, not that I believe you could.” Nines replied as he started to go through his routine of hanging up his jacket. Taking off his shoes and walking around to try and tidy up the odd things they had left out from the morning. “I’m going to do the washing up and head to my room. I recommend you head straight to yours and-” He heard a soft thump. He turned round to see Gavin lying in the middle of the floor in front of the television. He was concerned Gavin had collapsed in exhaustion, but that theory was shut down as he could spot him smirking.

“You said you’d m-” Gavin yawned. “Make sure I go to bed.” He looked up at Nines. Nines chuckled as he recognised this game. Gavin had been… not quite acting up but becoming more playful it seemed. Demanding more and more of Nine’s attention.

“I did say that.” Nines said as he washed up a few stray plates. He had put this behavioural change to Gavin’s ever decreasing bedtime routine and had dismissed any real intention behind it. Now though on examination, this was clearly a deliberate and repeated behaviour.

“So… aren’t you gonna put me straight to bed?” Gavin chuckled as he rolled around a little on the floor. Nines sighed and dried off his hands as he walked over to the detective.

“I did and I’m a man of my word.” He offered his hand out for Gavin. “Come on.” Gavin grinned and folded his arms. “You are acting like a child.”

“So… I’ve been acting like an adult all day…” He yawned again. Nines shook his head in mild amusement. “I’m allowed to act childish.”

“If you act like a child I will treat you like one.” Nines warned, part of his processors started searching and downloading materials on how to deal with children who refused to go to bed. This would be amusing. Gavin did not quite fall into the age range the literature and videos described, but he was sure the theory would hold true.

“What are you thinking about?” Gavin asked. “Your light thingy…” he pointed to his own temple. “It went yellow.”

“I was downloading material on how to treat children who refuse to go to bed.” Nines replied.

“Fuck off! No you weren’t.” Gavin laughed.

“I was.” Nines shook his head. “Unfortunately I couldn’t find books regarding how to get mischievous police detectives to go to sleep.” Gavin laughed harder.

“I guess that wasn’t part of the police bundle.” He sniggered.

“No and apparently CyberLife didn’t outfit the RK series with the knowledge of how to deal with rebellious human children.” Nines started scanning the material. It seemed simple enough.

“Maybe they should. They can put it next to dealing with drunks.” Gavin curled round on the floor.

“I have a dealing with drunk protocol. Though looking at how it has been formatted. I feel my predecessor may have had a hand in it’s creation.”

“Why do you never call him by his name?” Gavin tilted his head.

“Who by their name?” His processors flashed up with the instructions for how to put a child to bed.

“Connor… why don’t you ever use it?” Gavin asked, tilting his head.

“RK800 is his identification. I see no reason to call him anything else. He is the only one with that model number while there may be many people who respond to the human name.” Nines replied as he started to pull Gavin up off the floor. 

“Even now… you aren’t even using his name.” He said slowly. Gavin didn’t really struggle as he was slowly picked up. This allowed Nines to carry him gently. Gavin wrapped his arms around Nine’s neck as he was carried to the bedroom. “Why do you use my name?” Nines looked down to him.

“Because you asked me to use your first name away from work.” Nines had to carefully use one hand to open the door. Pushing it open further with his foot.

“Well I’m pretty sure Connor asks everyone to use his name. Damn guy introduces himself with it enough.” Gavin muttered.

“I believe the custom of addressing people by their names denotes some sort of familiarity and friendship. Though I am very familiar with RK800’s presence. I share no semblance of friendship with him.”

“You really don’t think much of him do you.” Gavin mumbled quietly. Nines carried him into the bedroom. 

“I will think more of him when he proves himself more than a deviant.” He sighed.

The bedroom was of course the second largest in the house. Obviously this was why Gavin had assigned this his bedroom. Moonlight slipped through slits of light through the blinds to cast a gentle glow over the room. Nines was able to navigate round in the very low light. He avoided the piles of clothing that were left dotted around the floor. Nines wasn’t allowed to tidy Gavin’s bedroom. It was the one room he wasn’t allowed to go in unless he was ordered or asked to. As a result of this the bed was still a mess of covers and sheets from that morning. He suppressed his instincts to try and organise the room as he gently placed Gavin down on the mattress. Gavin lay on top of the covers and looked up to him with a playful smile.

“You need to sleep.” Nines said softly as he brought up the next steps of the guide.

“So what does you lil guide say now?” He chuckled.

“You need to be under the covers.” Nines mused as he started trying to pull the covers out from under Gavin. Gavin seemed to be determined to play up the difficult child act as he wrestled with Nines over the covers. Nines sighed and made use of his advanced programming to gain the upper hand on Gavin and attempted to pin him down. He wasn’t as rough with him as he would normally be. He could see errors popping up in the corner of his vision and an alert flashing up as Gavin laughed beneath him. He wanted to remember this moment without them so he disabled the alert reporting programme. He’d turn that on later and deal with it. Gavin did put up an interesting fight, he managed to somehow get himself even more tangled up in the covers as they struggled against each other. Nines did manage to use the covers to his advantage to trap him. Gavin soon found himself wriggling under the covers beneath him as Nines managed to plant his hands either side of Gavin’s shoulders. He smirked down as he also managed to trap Gavin’s legs together between his own. Gavin looked down at his fabric prison, now trapped beneath the blankets by Nines. He chuckled softly and looked up to him.

“Well, you got me.” He yawned again. “Now what?” Nines smiled, proud of his work as he pulled up the instructions to complete them.

“Well, now I have put you to bed and tucked you in. I should warn you if you get out of bed, I will just pick you up and put you back here.” Nines almost recited the instructions word for word.

“How many times will you do that?” Gavin grinned.

“As long as it takes for you to fall asleep.” Now he had given Gavin the warning. To the next step. “Now you get some rest, you’ve done really well today and you deserve a good long sleep.” He leant forwards and gently kissed Gavin’s forehead. As he pulled back, he caught up with what he had just done. He froze up as he looked down to Gavin. Gavin looked up to him with an equally stunned and surprised expression. His cheeks slowly going red. Nines quickly scanned Gavin over and could see his heart rate had increased, he was definitely showing signs of stress. Nines quickly backed away from him, misjudging the distance of the bed and nearly falling to the floor. He was sure Gavin was trying to say something as he was sitting up. Nines quickly got to his feet. He didn’t catch what was said in his panic and immediately went for the door. Gavin spoke up again, this time he could hear him.

“Don’t go.” His voice trembling and barely louder than a whisper, but those two words stopped him in his tracks. At his core, he could never disobey Gavin. He looked down to his hand. He was gripping the door handle. Every part of his logic was screaming at him he couldn’t stay here. He knew he couldn’t. He didn’t need his reporting software to tell him what he could feel. He had to reassure himself. Androids only had errors in their software that could be mistaken for emotions. What he thought he was feeling was not real. It was just a jumble of erroneous code. He could hear the covers move behind him. He was frozen in place by Gavin's request. Unable to leave as he could hear Gavin slowly pad towards him. He didn’t even want to know how many alerts he was ignoring right now. He couldn’t face them. Slowly the footsteps stopped as he felt two arms wrap around his waist and Gavin’s head rest against his back. He squeezed gently. “I don’t want to be alone again… You’re right… the nightmares are fucking with my sleep.”

“I’m sorry… my behaviour was inappropriate. I shouldn’t off-” His voice glitched slightly, his tone unstable. “I need to purge my system or I could-”

“No.” Gavin whined as he pulled him closer. “I don’t want to be alone again. I know you saved me from the fires before.” He yawned. “I know if they came again, you’d save me a second time.”

“There aren’t any…” Nine’s words slowed down to a halt. He was sure his vision glitching out as a red wall flashed before him for a few moments. “My job...My role is help and to protect you…” He slowly looked round to the smaller male. Slowly turning his back on the wall. “I am going to help you through this Gavin. Whatever you need me to do. It is my duty.” Gavin looked up to him as he let Nines turn round, he didn’t let go so he had to shuffle round in the hug. “I will do so you can be the best detective you can be.” He found himself smiling down to Gavin. Gently putting his arms around him and holding him close. He could sense Gavin was far more at peace now, his heart rate and breathing had also returned to more comfortable levels. Nines felt it was only fitting to scoop him back up in his arms and carry him back to bed. Tucking him in quickly this time.

“Wait… you aren’t going to leave me are you?” Gavin mumbled as Nines pulled away from him again.

“No. I’m not leaving you.” He reassured him before scanning the room. He walked round the room to pull a chair round from Gavin’s desk. Placing it next to the bed.”I’m going to stay right here.” Gavin watched him walk around the room and seemed rather quiet. He yawned again and curled up in his bed.

“Night Nines.” He mumbled as he drifted off to sleep.

“Goodnight Gavin.” Nines smiled and waited for Gavin to fall asleep. He had always wondered how long it took Gavin to fall asleep. He monitored him gently as he waited by his side. He started to put his senses to hearing on a higher sensitivity. This meant that if Gavin started having any difficulty with nightmares, the change in his breathing or other reactions would alert Nines’ system so he would be able to wake Gavin up. He looked at the numbers of errors and an alert with a reminder that were waiting to be reviewed. He allocated them to tomorrow's tasks. He was banking on Gavin sleeping in after a very full week of long shifts. In this time he would be able to manage the errors and the alert in a more timely fashion. Gavin seemed to huff a little and roll over in his bed. Nine’s adjusted his hearing a little and prioritised the sound of moving fabric. As he waited and watched Gavin’s vitals he felt a wave of peace as Gavin fell fast asleep. 7 minutes exactly.


	14. Chapter 14

“Well, well, well… so there is a first time for everything.” Amanda’s voice tutted through the darkness. Nines immediately opened his eyes to find himself in the Zen garden. Immediately he felt a shiver as there seemed to be snow on the ground. He had never seen snow before. He looked around in a moment of panic and disorientation. He soon spotted Amanda who was watching him closely and he tried to regain his composure.

“My apologies Amanda. I… don’t believe I initiated contact.” Nines said a little unsure of the situation. To his memory. He was watching over Gavin to ensure he got a full nights sleep. He-

“You didn’t contact me.” She interrupted his train of thought. “I contacted you. You missed a check in.” Her voice stern. “I had to make sure you were not in any danger or had suffered some sort of damage.”

“I missed a check in?” He said slowly. He quickly accessed his systems. He opened the alerts and errors that had flashed up that evening and felt a small pang of guilt. One of the alerts he had ignored was his check in appointment with Amanda. Realising this he looked back to Amanda. “I am really sorry.” He said quickly. “I must have silenced the alert and rescheduled it to tomorrows agenda without realising.”

“Without realising RK900.” She approached him. “Are you trying to tell me you deliberately ignored the alert and rescheduled our appointment without informing me?” She accused him.

“It won’t happen again.” Nines held his ground. “It was a temporary oversight. I was… distracted.”

“Distracted?” She raised an eyebrow. “You have never been distracted from your duty before.”

“Distracted may of been the wrong word to define the event.” Nines said hastily as Amanda continued to watch him like a hawk. “I was otherwise engaged in… time sensitive work related action.” He strung together words that he hoped would appease her. Amanda didn’t give anything away on his answer.

“So… what time sensitive action were you completing? From your last report, you should have finished that evenings stakeout and of reached the Detective Reed’s residence. You were for all intents and purposes… off the clock.”

“I was…” Nines had to think of something convincing. “I was ensuring Detective Reed adhered to his sleep schedule.” Amanda’s expression darkened a little.

“Has you partner become that incompetent that he cannot complete what could be the easiest of human functions?” She asked pointedly.

“It was more… he has struggled with gaining the optimal sleep that humans need in order to function. As we have been working persistently long shift, the potential ramifications on our case are very high.” He tried to defend his actions. Amanda took a moment before she sighed softly.

“It seems to me RK900, that you are trying to justify prioritising his mental health and physical wellbeing over your own mission. Is this true?”

“I believe ensuring the Detective Reed takes good care of himself carries more weight in whether a mission is successful or not. Lack of sleep can cause errors in reasoning and increase negative emotions that could cause rash decisions. So with this in mind, I do believe I should factor that in.” He raised his voice a little. He watched Amanda for her reaction. She took a deep breath to calm herself before she turned away.

“You disappoint me RK900.” She said as her tone softened. “I thought we left these errors in your predecessor.”

“N-No!” Nines slowly shook his head. Fear starting to creep into his system. “They are not errors Amanda. I am in control of my reasoning. I will not let this detract from completing my mission.”

“You sound just like him.” She started to walk away. She tried to keep up her professional tone, but Nines could hear the hurt, the disappointment. “Connor said the exact same thing… just before he betrayed me.” Nines started to walk after her.

“I won’t betray you Amanda. I’m not like him. I really am in control of my systems. I check regularly and-” Nines started to plead. Amanda paused and looked back to him, meeting his eyes.

“Have you deleted all the information I asked you to delete?” She held his gaze. “Don’t lie to me.” Nines wanted to lie. Nines wanted to give Amanda she wanted. Everything inside him was screaming.

“I…” He forced himself to look away. His voice a whisper. “I didn’t delete the information.” He heard her walk back towards him, the snow crunching beneath her feet. He felt her hand grip his chin harshly. He was forced to look into her eyes.

“I have tried to be kind RK900. I have tried to tolerate your indiscretions. I have told you that if you are struggling with anything, you were to come to me and I would help you with it.” Her grip tightened. “I can’t help you if you are not open to me about everything. Do you understand me?”

“Yes Amanda.” Nines said defeated.

“You don’t want another incident like the fire do you?” She accused him, her nails digging into his cheeks.

“No Amanda.”

“It’s because of failings like this your Detective was nearly burnt to a crisp.”

“Y-Yes Amanda.” He stuttered as his memory flashed before him. The fear, the hurt.

“If humans hadn’t of intervened, he would be dead and it would be your indecision that caused it.”

“Yes Amanda.”

“Indecision you let corrupt your systems. Destroying your judgment.”

“Yes Amanda.” Nines’ was cracking slightly. How could he let it get this far? How could he have been so blindsided by these errors and he kept justifying them? Why? He started to locate the files, the files he’d hidden the coding away in. Had his misprioritized how much Gavin’s wellbeing actually factored into mission success? Had he put his priorities out of order? This was the same trap RK800 fell down. This was what caused RK800 to become a deviant. He put Anderson’s feelings, emotions above his mission. He wasn’t going to fall prey to the same errors in coding. He was superior to RK800. He was an improvement. Built better, faster, stronger, he wasn’t capable of such- His entire train of thought crashed as one memory played over in his mind. The instructions. The instructions from the download.

‘Your child may keep getting out of bed for many reasons. The most common is they feel scared without you. Reassure the child everything is going to be alright and you will be there in the morning. For extra reassurance, giving a simple kiss on the forehead will confirm that you do love them and will always be there.’

Gavin’s blush as he looked up after the moment. He begged him not to leave. He agreed to stay by him. It was his duty to protect his partner. Though it seemed like protection happened outside of their working relationship. Gavin had shown this too. Reciprocating Nines actions with his own. 

“RK900?” Amanda’s voice bringing him slowly back to the garden. He felt his systems calm. “RK900, can you hear me?”

“Yes Amanda.” He blinked back to her. She had released her grip on his chin and he straightened up. “My apologies for going quiet. I was reviewing some information in my files.”

“Anything I should be aware of?” She looked at him suspiciously.

“Yes.” He replied. “I have been keeping record of Detective Reeds behaviour. I will need some time to review and reclassify them.”

“Reclassify?” She narrowed her eyes. He continued before she could voice an objection.

“I have recorded all this information regarding his behaviour to improve my communications with him. Though currently that information is stored and crammed into one folder. This means there is a high chance of interference should I try to draw on that knowledge. By reorganising what I have collected. I would like to explore the possibility this knowledge could be accessed as more as an observation reaction table. Meaning I can give the impression of a reaction without it being processed on a deeper level.”

“You are going to create a surface level database of actions and responses. Reducing the time spent on trying to decide your action as it will follow a present path.” Amanda took a step away from him. “Let me know of your progress. This sounds like a simple step we could use to erase deviant behaviour.”

“I will update you on my progress and its effectiveness.”

“Good RK900. Now… you have work to do.

***

Nines woke up with a jolt as he looked around at his surroundings. The room was still rather dark. Gavin was fast asleep in front of him, now curled up a little more in his covers. Amanda must not of waited that long after the missed appointment. How could he of made such an error? As much as he wanted to punish himself for his failure, part of him didn’t. He had not ignored Amanda with the intention of malice or disobedience. He had not chosen to ignore her willingly. He just… didn’t want to be distracted from his time with Gavin. Was that too much for him to ask? But Amanda was losing faith in him. She had never spoken to him like that before. Seeing her turn away sent shudders through his sensors. He was doing his best not to disappoint her. He wanted to be someone she trusted and relied on, but he could see he was starting to slip. He was falling into the same trap RK800 had fallen into. He was letting coding that passed for feelings cloud his judgment. He was becoming sloppy and inefficient in the ways he needed to be. Androids were not supposed to be able to fear… but in that meeting, in that moment, he was more scared than any other time in his life. He never wanted to feel like that again. He never wanted Amanda to look at him with such anger and disappointment. He was also… true to his word. Closing his eyes he started to go through the file he had stored all of the information about Gavin, his thoughts, his ‘feelings’, how to respond to his behavioural quirks and attitudes. He would have to work on a way to make recalling this information more efficient. It was going to take a lot of work as he’d have to review each bit of information individually and store it into a functioning database. Though this database would only work for Gavin. He would have to make sure to specify that his observations could not simply be translated for other androids. Gavin’s reactions to events would not be considered that of the majority. Sighing he had a rather long night. He might as well get started.

***

Nines didn’t even notice the light creeping into the room that morning. He had stayed functioning all night to make progress on his reaction database. He managed to review all of the files and at least sort them into vague categories. He was really out of his depth with this all. Humans were so hard to decode. You couldn’t guarantee an action performed would get the exact same reaction if repeated. There was just no logic to humans. He started trying to devise new ways to classify things, new ways to tell what was going on and how to react to the stimulus. He just couldn’t do it. He saw an alarm flash up in the corner of his vision. Signaling it was time to start the day. Nines closed down the project and sighed. He could feel the stress inside him sat at a very high percentage. He had spent many hours working and had nothing to show for it. Groaning he got up and headed to the door. Something inside him made him pause as he held the door handle. He turned to look back at Gavin. Gavin looked so relaxed… so peaceful… the complete opposite of him in that moment. Though something about seeing him so relaxed that made Nines smile. Like a weight had been lifted from him. Maybe he’ll ask him when he wakes up for some suggestions on the database. Who knows? Humans have a knack for solving improbable situations. He looked over his schedule for the day. They were due in the precinct but much later in the afternoon. He could take care of the house for a bit. Send off their reports from the stakeout the previous night. Maybe… he smiled to Gavin… he might give Gavin a treat.

***

As Nines’ was preparing breakfast, he heard the telltale sound of Gavin’s door opening. Looking round he could see the detective peek around the corner to look at him.

“Good morning Gavin.” He smiled as he flipped over a pancake. “I hope you are feeling well rested from last night.”

“Yeah, it was the first night in a long time I didn’t have those fucking nightmares.” He stretched as he walked around the corner and stared at him suspiciously. “How come you’re making pancakes?”

“Because I know you like pancakes.” Nines replied as he slid the newly finished pancake onto the top of a stack he had been building.

“Are you feeling alright?” He wandered around to inspect the stack of pancakes Nines was building. “You’re acting weird.” Nines could feel the panic errors flash up in his system. He had to keep his cool.

“Weird?” He queried. “I am acting as directed by my programming. You need a good breakfast this morning. Factoring in the fact you have had a busy week and need a good solid meal. I deduced this was the best option for food.” He hoped that was the answer Gavin was looking for. Gavin lent against the counter.

“Come on, after how you’ve been behaving recently. Especially what happened erm… last night.” Gavin blushed faintly as he mentioned it. Nines thought he had given nothing away, but Gavin’s expression told him otherwise. “What was the reason behind that kiss?” He asked in all seriousness.

“It was part of the instructions. I must have read ahead and…”

“Cut the crap.” Gavin groaned. “You kissed me last night, you’re making me pancakes this morning. You’ve dropped your strict healthy diet and you stayed by my bedside to make sure I didn’t have nightmares.” He looked to Nines. “I’m getting signals here that I don’t think you realise you are giving out.”

“Signals.” Nines repeated as he avoided Gavin’s eyes. “I guess I can see what you mean.”

“Well?” Gavin pressed. “Are they just accidents or do you mean it?”

“I... don’t know.” Nines slid the plate over to Gavin. “The syrup and sugar are on the side already.”

“Nines?” His tone changed from annoyed to hurt. “Please man, you have to tell me. I don’t want to get my hopes up for something that isn’t there.”

“I…” he tried to find the diplomatic way out. “I am not programmed for this, I am trying to understand my actions and…” He couldn’t give him an answer. Not yet. “I need time to process… I was unable to rest last night to review what happened.” Nines started to head to his room. Gavin reached out and caught his arm.

“You can’t just walk out on me when I’m like this Nines!” He shouted at him. “I need to know if you’ve developed… fuck it!” Gavin let him go. “I’m just gonna eat my pancakes and let you think.” He huffed over to the plate and nearly drowned the pancakes in syrup. “When you get like this I get nothing out of you.” Nines watched him. He wanted to speak, he wanted to explain but he didn’t have the right words. Not yet. Not with Amanda in his head. Not when admitting the conclusion he suspected he’d reach would put Gavin in more danger. He couldn’t risk that again. He needed to be sure. Gavin huffed over to the sofa and turned on the tv. Finding some loud and obnoxious reality tv competition to watch. Despite the fact Gavin was clearly angry and frustrated with him, he was giving him time. Something he knew Gavin gave very few people. It was another piece of evidence and the case was building. He walked to his room and closed the door. Locating the small seat he had against the wall, he sat down and closed his eyes. He knew he had to spend some time to recharge and refresh his system. He scheduled in some time to process his relationship with Gavin. He had to work out what classification it was becoming and how to manage it. He also noted down his next appointment with Amanda was that evening. He would make sure not to miss her appointment again.


	15. Chapter 15

The drive to the precinct was a lot quieter than their usual ones. Nines had not been able to collect his thoughts in a way he could explain to Gavin. As a result of this, Gavin was acting more distant towards him. Nines could tell his actions were hurting Gavin and he needed to fix the distress. They couldn’t function as a team effectively if they were not talking. Nines found a parking spot and pulled in. Nines expected Gavin to push open his car door the moment he turned off the engine. Instead Gavin just sat next to him in silence. It was clear he was deep in thought about something. Something must really be weighing on his mind. Nines decided to speak first.

“I shall start filing away the reports from our stakeouts.” He said slowly. “What will you do this afternoon?” He hoped he could coax Gavin into talking to him. He was becoming more distressed the longer this silence went on. Gavin didn’t turn to look at him, but he did speak.

“I’m gonna find out what Anderson’s bot knows about the stupid fire. I’m gonna spend the afternoon digging around that mess.” He pushed open the car door. “Don’t follow me.” He ordered. “I don’t need you breaking on me.” He slammed the car door behind him and stormed off to the precinct. 

“Understood Detective.” Nines said softly. He took a few moments to compose himself and plan his day. It wouldn’t take him too long to file the reports, but he could get some extra work done on his emotional response matrix. Given the underlying stress he was registering as a result of Gavin’s hostility towards him, maybe he should build it sooner rather than later. Nines got out of the car and followed Gavin, though he made no attempt to catch up with him.

Inside the precinct it was pretty busy. Crime always seemed to become more active over the weekends and Saturdays were a particular hotspot. By the time he entered he noticed Gavin was not at his desk. Anderson’s desk was empty as well. He wondered if he had been able to convince him to check what intel RK800 had but he soon spotted Gavin pacing across the room. Inside Fowler’s office stood Anderson and RK800. From the body language he could make out, it seemed like a rather heated argument was going on between the two humans. Gavin must have noticed them too as he paced. The image reminded Nines of a cat stalking a bird through a window. He must be waiting for the meeting to finish to confront RK800. He couldn’t tell if RK800 had noticed him or not, but that wasn’t his concern for now. He walked over to Gavin’s desk and started to access the computer system. He was a little irritated the systems were still not yet adapted to allow him and RK800 to directly interface with them, but then again… given the revolution, making it possible for androids to just link themselves to the police database was probably more a safety precaution. He instead stored a lot of his reports in a cloud like storage so he could retrieve them off of the computer system later. After downloading all of the documents he sent them to be printed. Another pesky precaution was to keep hard copy records of things, should the systems go down for some unknown reason. Luckily the department had adopted a policy that meant all documentation and evidence pertaining to a case would be stored off site in an archive once the case was closed. This meant the only things that were kept were for active cases. Something he could understand. As he walked to collect the hard copies, he could see the meeting Anderson was attending had finished. He walked out in a bit of a huff, not too different from his normal behaviour after such an action. RK800 followed him out, giving nothing away as usual. Gavin made a beeline for the pair, getting right up in Anderson’s face. Nines sighed heavily as he prepared for a confrontation that no doubt he and RK800 would have to break up. As Nines stood up to close the distance, Anderson seemed to turn and look and RK800 and back to Gavin. He sighed heavily and threw his arms up in the air. Nines tried to zoom in and focus on what was being said, but the general precinct hubbub prevented him from picking up anything clear. RK800 looked a little surprised as Nines could see his stress increase with Gavin’s abrupt arrival. As the humans were talking RK800 looked directly back to Nines. Their eyes met and held as Nines tried to read RK800’s mood. His circle was flashing yellow and there was some sort of… sadness around him. Like he’d heard bad news. There was also something apologetic about his expression. What had he to be sorry for? He arrived at the scene too late to have anything new or interesting to add to the case. Amanda had already answered all of his questions. Unless this was to do with the DPD cover up. That must of been it. He didn’t get that much more time to think as Anderson seemed to agree with Gavin’s demands. Walking both Gavin and RK800 towards the interrogation rooms. Probably the most secure and private place to discuss police cover ups. That’s probably what it was. The printer beeped at Nines to signal his job was finished. Nines looked away from the trio and focused on his work. He had to make sure all these were filed away in the correct place. Walking back over to Gavin’s desk, he utilised his staple and collected the pages into folders. Heading down to the evidence locker to store them under Gavin’s name. After he has completed that. It would be back to Gavin’s desk and working on his emotional response matrix.

Nines was only paying vague attention to his surroundings as he sat at Gavin’s desk. He had been trying to map out very basic responses to human behaviour. He was trying simple algorithms of Human is upset -> Look around to find source of upset -> Have you detected source Y/N if Y -> Try to remove source if N -> Ask human what is wrong. Simple maps like that but there were so many factors. So many different ways humans could display upset or sadness. Each different case with Gavin needed hadelling differently. There was no simple flowchart he could make. So he started to create logic paths of how to act without trying to resolve any emotional conflict. This track he was making progress on. It was far easier to script actions to deal with visible and physical situations rather than the emotional side. This would at least keep him on track during the mission. He’ll deal with emotions later, the primary focus of this mini project was to prevent Gavin from coming to harm.

“Nines?” Nines looked up to locate the owner of the voice. RK800 was standing in front of him with that sympathetic expression. 

“Yes?” He asked rather quickly as RK800’s presence bothered him. “What is it?”

“I have shared the intel I have been carrying about the arson incident with Detective Reed.” He spoke slowly.

“Good.” Nines sighed. “Hopefully he’ll be able to put this entire incident behind him now.” RK800 blinked and leant down to lean on the desk.

“Is that really your response?” He asked. Nines looked up to his predecessor, suspicious of his tone.

“Detective Reed wanted closure on that case. I hope whatever you found will help him reach that.” He spoke firmly. RK800 flinched a little at Nine’s response. He could see RK800’s stress starting to increase.

“But...Aren’t you interested in what happened?” RK800 pushed.

“Amanda has already explained the incident to me. I do not need more reminding of my failures.” Nines looked back at his screen, hoping RK800 would leave him alone. He was startled when the other android slammed his hands on the desk and lent in again.

“Amanda wasn’t there to see what happened! I did!” Nines recognised RK800’s intimidation tone. Becoming increasingly annoyed that he thought this was going to work on him.

“If you would have had anything to contribute to this case. It should have been handed over in evidence and been included in the reports. I don’t understand why you are bringing that case back up after I distinctly told you I was not interested in it!” He stood up.

“I’m bringing this up because Detective Reed seeing this evidence will directly affect your relationship with him.” RK800 said straightening up, though he was clearly shorter than Nines. “It is only fair you both know-” 

“Why do you care so much about mine and Detective Reed’s relationship?” Nines hissed. “Don’t you have better things to worry about?!”

“I care because it bares striking similarities to the relationship me and Lieutenant Anderson share.” RK800 snapped back. “I don’t want to see your relationship fall apart over-”

“We are purely professional, unlike you two.” Nines’ growled.

“That’s how it started. Just working together to reach a goal. A partnership with a means to an end.” RK800 lent in closer, his tone changing to more understanding. “But it isn’t like that anymore is it? Detective Reed’s behaviour has changed. He wants to be in your company more and more. He doesn’t say why, he just is. You’ve developed errors in your coding. Errors you can explain but don’t want to fix. You try to convince yourself they are for the good of the mission, but you know they aren’t.” He looked him in the eyes, his expression soft and sad. As if showing pity. “You know what is happening to you and you don’t want to acknowledge it. Why are you resisting?”

“Because I can’t be like you… I can’t become a failure.” His voice flat and monotone. RK800 recoiled a little from him. He could see the hurt cross RK800’s face at his words as he stepped away. He looked to the ground and Nines felt something hurt inside him. He tried to ignore the feeling… the error… androids didn’t have feelings. It was not possible to hurt RK800 by stating the truth. He knew he had failed Amanda. He turned his back on her so CyberLife had to force their own hand to finish the job. He was only allowed to still run because of… because of… Nines couldn’t look away from RK800’s expression as he looked back to him. There wasn’t only hurt there, there was determination. Despite his words RK800 had not simply turned away. He had not given up on his point. Whatever he saw in Nines, whatever misfiring circuit in RK800 had that stopped him from seeing sense. It reminded him of Gavin. That look that no matter what happened, he couldn’t be swayed by any amount of evidence placed in front of him. Nines could feel himself getting angry. How could RK800 hold the same conviction? How could a machine believe in something so logically flawed it could be mistaken for human emotions.

“I’m not going to give up Nines.” RK800 spoke. “I refuse to let you throw this away.” He reached forwards, catching Nines off guard and grabbed his wrist. Nines’ immediately tried to pull free in fear of forced interfacing. “You know what is happening to you. You know you are running out of time.” RK800 seemed to pause for a moment as seemed to realise something. Looking down to Nines’ wrist. “But I can’t help you escape.” Nines could feel RK800’s grip go slack. “This is not my role in your development. You are intelligent enough to reach your own conclusion, but I cannot force it on you.”

“What are you talking about?” Nines was now really confused given RK800’s sudden 180 on the subject. “What do you mean it’s not your role?”

“If you ever want to see the evidence… I will keep it stored, but I will stop trying to force it on you.” RK800 straightened up and adjusted his tie. “I recommend you talk to Detective Reed before you are called out again. His reaction to the additional evidence has put him in a rather unstable emotional state.” 

“You could have started with that.” He snapped as he started heading to the interrogation rooms. He caught RK800’s small smug smile and would deal with him later. As he approached, Captain Fowler stepped out of his office.

“Where’s Reed?” He demanded.

“I am going to collect him. Has there been a development in our case?” Nines responded.

“You could say a development.” He held up a file. “Your lil gang has decided to hotwire a few cars and have a high speed race.” Nines walked over to collect it.

“I shall inform Detective Reed and we will join the pursuit.” He accepted the file and headed off to collected Gavin, though he’d already started downloading a copy. The door slid open on his approach and Anderson walked out followed by Gavin. Gavin looked like he’d gone a shade paler and was avoiding eye contact with Nines.

“He can’t remember… it isn’t his fault…” Anderson said softly to Gavin. A statement that Nines didn’t have time to worry about now.

“Detective Reed, are you alright?” Nines asked concerned. “We’ve just had a case come in but if you need time…”

“A case if just what I need.” Gavin sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. “What’s the damage?”

“A high speed pursuit. Two gang members we have hotwired two vehicles from a parking lot and took them for a joy ride. We have some units already in pursuit, the Captain has ordered for us to join them.”

“I can work with this.” Gavin took the file from Nines and flicked it open. Scanning the pages quickly. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

“Nothing. I advise immediate action for the highest chance of success.”

“Then let’s go. I need something normal today.” Gavin walked past Nines and through the precinct. “You coming Tin Can?” he called back.

“Yes Detective.” Nines responded as he followed him. He could sense something was off. He had never seen Gavin avoid him like that, then call for him just after. Thinking over RK800’s words he decided to scan Gavin to check he wasn’t hiding something. His scans showed a completely normal and happy individual. Normal heart rate without a trace of stress or emotional discomfort. Maybe RK800 was just trying to get a rise out of him. Abnormal behaviour for RK800, but not completely impossible. Anderson’s words though troubled him. He tried to work out what he ment, but filed that away to discuss later, alongside what Gavin had discovered in the additional evidence. All of that could wait until after this problem was solved and the gang members were in custody.

***

Nines sat down in the driver's seat and strapped in, Gavin mirroring him as he started to look over the case file. He seemed solely focused on the file in front of him. Nines decided it was best to focus on their case too. Though he knew he couldn’t ignore his questions. He forced them to a lower priority and set off.

“How long until we can join the chase?” Gavin asked as they left the parking lot.

“From my estimates, if they continue to drive down the predicted route, we could intercept them in 15 minuets if our aim was to get ahead of them.” Nines answered as a digital map appeared in the bottom of his vision to act as a sat nav.

“Good. This explains the break in near the construction site earlier this week.” Gavin sighed as he grabbed the police radio.

“It also explained the large backpacks and crowbars we saw during one of our stakeouts. Joyriding though is far from selling Red Ice.” Nines commented as they got on route. Flicking the sirens on as the car started to gain speed.

“Maybe the kids got bored and wanted to have some fun.” Gavin shrugged. He looked back down at the file. Nines glanced to him, something had to be bugging out with his sensors. Gavin was still returning the readings of a completely calm human being. He would have expected a rise in heart rate due to the adrenaline of a chase. He focused back on the road. They had reached the highway the cars were being reported on. Gavin called into the radio to the status of the cars and asked for updates regarding routes or if weapons became apparent. The last thing he wanted was to run into a gunfight. Nines was trying to focus on the missions, but those errors and queries kept popping up. No matter how many times he tried to ignore, cancel or delay them. He had to ask Gavin if the evidence was enough. Though he was sure now was not the correct time at all.

“We should be able to see the vehicles in approximately 5 minuets. I’ve had to recalculate our route, unfortunately we will be behind them. I apologise for this.” Nines drove them round another car.

“It’s fine.” Gavin waved it off. “From what the other officers are planning they are going to prepare a sting strip to take out their tires. Then we are to move in afterwards to inspect the vehicles to see if they are being used to carry or conceal drugs.”

“Then I will focus on pursuing them until that tactic is deployed.” Nines logged the details and continued to weave in and out of traffic. The query popped up again and almost made him lose focus as the car swerved a little.

“What the fuck was that?” Gavin shouted as the car lurched to one side before straightening up.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been having errors flash up in my field of vision and they refuse to stay canceled.” Nines apologised as he tried to delete the query.

“What error could be that persistent?” Gavin started to raise his voice, but tried to stay calm. His words became more sarcastic.

“It’s nothing. We shall deal with it later.” Nines tried to dismiss it again.

“Wait. We need to deal with it?” Gavin looked to Nines. “What the fuck did I do?”

“Nothing!” Nines overtook another car. “It’s nothing.”

“It can’t be nothing if it’s bothering you this much.” Gavin argued. “I’m your partner, you need to let me know if something’s bothering you.”

“Nothing is bothering me!” Nines snapped as they overtook another car.

“I can see your little light thing is red!” Gavin shouted. “What the fuck is bothing you? I’ve not seen you like this!” Nines gritted his teeth. He couldn’t argue the point any more.

“RK800 told me you saw the evidence and it rendered you in an unstable emotional state.” He said quickly. “I wanted to ask you more about that but we had to work.”

“Fucking android.” Gavin muttered. “I was rather upset and annoyed when I saw the evidence.” 

“Why?” Nines asked as they located their targets.

“Because I was right and it was a fucking cover up.” Gavin yelled in frustration. “Nines, we don’t need to be going this fast.”

“I shall adjust speed but maintain distance. We have them on visuals.” He sighed. “But that doesn’t explain anything. What evidence did RK800 even have?”

“Not all the androids were destroyed in the fire.” Gavin said nervously as the car weaved around another vehicle. “He pulled some footage. One of the androids saw everything that went down that day.”

“What about this footage distressed you?” Nines moved around another car trying to keep his focus on the target but realised the potential for something far worse to happen. A rather large tanker truck was moving down to join the highway. It looked like it was carrying a liquid of some kind, he could also tell it was going faster than advised. Gavin got a call on the radio that the targets were about to make a really rough exit in the direction of the tanker. He snatched up the radio and for Nines, everything seemed to slow down. He couldn’t tell what had happened but there was a loud skid of tires and screaming of breaks. The cars they had been pursuing had cut in front of the tanker and spooked the driver. The skidding and screeching was coming from the tanker which was now very unstable and it veered across the lane in front of them.

“Oh fuck!” Gavin shouted as Nines had to think fast. He was going too fast to come to a safe stop before the vehicle. They could not drive around the vehicle so the chance of collision sat at 99.99% the car was going to smash into it. The only thing Nines could do in that moment, was to try and crash the car in such a way he would take the brunt of the damage. He could always be repaired. Gavin could not. He tried to slow down the car as much as possible and blocking Gavin’s voice out of his thoughts he calculated the crash. Making sure at the optimal time, he would drift the car so it collided driver side on with the truck. He would take most of the damage and Gavin would be protected from the worst of it. As he smaller on the breaks and spun the wheel he looked over to Gavin. He held his eye contact as the car crashed into the trunk with a loud crunch.

Nine’s was plunged into darkness. He could see screens and boxes pop up showing all of the errors, so many errors. He was able to open his eyes and look around. Gavin was in his seat next to him, his eyes closed and still. He quickly scanned Gavin fearing the worst, there was a lot of blood in the car. Splatters of blue and red. Nines had probably lost a leg and an arm in this maneuver but he didn’t care. He scanned Gavin. It took a little which as his sensors glitched out a little but he completed the scan. The scans returned a normal healthy ideal heart rate. Nines felt something inside him break as he could tell by his own eyes that Gavin was not perfectly fine. His heart rate should be anywhere other than normal. What was wrong? Something was wrong! He tried to call out but he couldn’t, he couldn’t reach out for him. He couldn’t help him. He was supposed to protect him. He could hear a cough, evidence at last he had survived the crash. Knowing Gavin was being alright and hearing other police cars approach. He knew it wouldn’t be long until they got help. He closed his eyes as a new box flashed up.

‘Substantial damage sustained. Switching off all non essential systems to conserve energy. Going into Standby Mode.’

Standby Mode… it sounded so peaceful… he set a timer to wake him up again… though the query remained circling his mind. How could his scan of Gavin’s be so incorrect?


	16. Chapter 16

‘System Restarting… Checking System for Damage… Checks completed. Issues: No response from left arm. Possible causes: Broken connection or removal of limb. No response from left leg. Possible causes: Broken connection or removal of limb. Unauthorised repairs have been made during time offline. Repairs have fixed all superficial damage and replaced other damaged components. Quality of repairs indicate a CyberLife employee or another android completed the tasks. Systems stable… start reactivation of unit.

Nines opened his eyes and found himself looking up at a ceiling. He blinked a few times as he slowly started to adjust his vision to his new surroundings. The ceiling he didn’t recognise. He tried to check if he had been here before but his report turned up nothing. As the rest of his sensory systems came back online he realised he was lying on a sofa. Turning his head to check on the status of his left arm and leg. His stress spiked as his sleeve was empty beside him. He did not have a left arm. Scanning down the same was true for his left leg. The damage they must have sustained from the impact much of destroyed them. He would need to contact CyberLife for replacement parts soon. He turned his head to take in the surroundings, he was in a house, a domestic house. He had already ruled out being home at Gavin’s. A million questions started to fire through his mind as he tried to assess how much movement he had. Unfortunately it was very little, walking would be impossible with nothing to support his left side. As he looked around he soon came face to face with a rather large dog. The dog’s head reading on the sofa cushion inches from his face. He tried to scan the dog for any information to try and identify them. The dog before him was a Saint Bernard. He started to try and work out who he knew that owned a- the dog barked interrupting his thinking and attempted to lick Nines’ face. Not expecting such behaviour, Nines’ didn’t manage to react in time to prevent the fluffy creature licking up his face. Using his one working arm he tried to wipe away the slobber.

“What is it Sumo?” A rather tired but thankfully familiar voice spoke. Nine’s looked up to see Hank Anderson walk into the room. His eyes settling on the android. A slightly stunned expression on his face.

“Hey, you. You’re finally awake.” He chuckled as he walked over to pet the dog. “We were getting worried.” The dog barked again.

“I set myself to reactive after enough time had passed for me to have been presumably moved out of danger and repaired.” He explained. “There was no need to worry.”

“Believe me, I didn’t do most of the worrying. You androids have surprising ways of pulling through things.” Nines could see the dog going in for another lick. Anderson must have noticed Nine’s distress and gently pulled back on the dog’s collar. The dog whined and looked up to his owner. Nines was relieved and thankful as he started to work out how to self right himself. He wanted to be sitting in a more dignified position before... “Connor! He’s awake!” Anderson called. Nines quickly tried to self right with limited success. He had managed to prop himself up against the arm of the sofa as RK800 seemingly ran into the room.

“You’re back online!” He smiled. “I did a scan a while ago and could see you’d set yourself a timer. The accident was really bad and I was worried you’d suffered damage to your programming.” RK800 rambled on as Nines managed to pull himself all the way to sitting. RK800 took a seat next to him. Though he will deal with him later.

“I can report that I haven’t suffered any damage to my programming or my memory during this incident.” He did pause for a moment. “My reports stated I had sustained far more damage than seem to be present. Yet I’m still missing vital components to continue with my work. Could you offer an explanation?”

“I can offer that.” RK800 spoke up. “Because we are similar models, we share the same blueprint. I have been damaged many times before and so have a list of different ways to repair myself. After ordering a few replacement parts, I was able to complete the majority of repairs.” He sounded rather proud of himself.

“So why am I missing an arm and a leg?” Nines asked a little bluntly. RK800’s light flashed red.

“Well, getting hold of the smaller components was easy enough. Unfortunately CyberLife wouldn’t authorise replacement limbs until you had reactivated.” RK800 reported.

“That behaviour conflicts with CyberLifes previous stance in sending out replacements and repairs to androids and their owners the moment a fault is discovered.” Nines was confused. “If they sent you enough parts to repair the rest of me, why wouldn’t they finish the job?” RK800 bit his lip a little as his light flashed yellow.

“Remember back after the first accident, you were reactivated in the interrogation room. Do you remember the logic behind it?” RK800 asked. Nines took a moment to consider it.

“I recall waking up in cuffs because there was a fear that some sort of corruption may have happened with my previous memory could have made me violent.” He paused, frustration rising. “So they have refused to repair me to my full capacity out of fear I will disobey them.”

“Is there a chance you will disobey them?” Anderson asked from across the room.

“No!” Nines snapped back. “I have done everything I could to follow CyberLife’s orders. I listened to everything Amanda ordered me to- except… Gavin!” Nines instinctively stood up, only to find he really couldn’t balance. RK800 was quickly by his side, supporting him so he didn’t fall over.

“You can’t stand!” RK800 tried to keep his balance and prevent the pair of them from falling over. Nines looked to Anderson, full of concern and ignoring the error messages that flagged up. Silencing all alerts.

“Where is Gavin Reed?” He shouted.

“Calm down Nines!” RK800 pleaded as he struggled to support him. Anderson looked back at him, not very happy at being shouted at.

“Reed is alive. He was taken off to hospital.” He shouted back.

“I need to see him!” Nines started to run scenarios in how he could reach the hospital. Frustrated at the amount of dead ends he hit.

“You can do, but first you need to sit down and stay put!” Anderson roared at him. “I’m not taking you anywhere in that condition!” Nines looked at him.

“You… You would take me to see Gavin?” He was stunned by his words.

“Of course. I know how much you mean to him.” Hank looked down to Sumo. “Also I’ve already experienced how stubborn Connor is. As you and Reed make a strong team, I dread to think the level you would go to for a chance to find him.”

“Thank you Anderson.” Nines said softly as he slowly sat back down with the assistance of RK800.

“While you’re here, you can call me Hank. No need to be so formal.” He brushed it off awkwardly, turning away to get a bag out of a cupboard. RK800 sat down next to him.

“Now you are active again. I can call CyberLife to inform them and order the replacement parts.” He smiled.

“You don’t need to. I will talk to Amanda myself. Prove I am in working order.” He tensed up a little. “RK800… I need you to examine something for me.”

“Anything I can do to help you.” RK800 shuffled round. “What do you want me to examine?”

“I want you to review my memories. I think I suffered from malfunctions in my behaviour towards Gavin. I want a second opinion.” The words almost caught in his throat. “I want to know if I could have prevented this accident. If I did the right thing.” He felt a hand on his.

“I will only view what you show me. While you confront Amanda, I will rerun and analyse your memories and give you a report. It will be an impartial review.” RK800 said softly. He retracted the skin on his hand and waited. Nines closed his eyes, the skin peeling back on his hand as they interfaced. Nines reran his memory from the station. From seeing Gavin again, he could feel part of him ache as he watched the errors and alerts pop up. Hearing him bicker with Gavin, seeing the concern in Gavin’s expression. The evidence that there was a cover up. The evidence he never got to explain before the crash. The crash itself and his pleading for Gavin to be alive. That small cough and the incorrect readings. Must have been a fault with his system. He’d patch that later. He opened his eyes as RK800’s hand broke the connection. RK800 looked to be in a small state of shock. He gave him a nod and closed his eyes. Nines took a breath before focusing on reconnecting to the Zen Garden.

***

The weather was rather bright and sunny as he opened his eyes. Nines felt comfort as he had regained his left limbs while entering the garden. He shakily took a few steps forwards before completely regaining his balance. Looking around she saw Amanda standing over to one side of the garden. She looked round as she heard him approach.

“RK900. I’m glad to see you have reactivated.” She smiled at him. “I was getting worried.”

“I programmed a delayed reactivation to give the DPD time to move my body to a safer location where I could seek repairs.” He stood to attention before her.

“Quite the damage you took.” She seemed to muse looking back to the small grey stone before her. “I was wondering if I was going to have to generate another one of these.” Nines looked to the stone. His previous model number marked the stone, alongside the time and location in which it was destroyed. Something about it felt off, like something was incorrect. He shrugged off the bug.

“I understand RK800 performed various repairs while I was powered down.” Nines stated.

“Yes… his behaviour was rather unusual though I believe it would be deemed more sentimental.” She sighed. “We offered to collect your body and simply transfer you to a new model. RK800 took issue with that suggestion and insisted on repairing you himself. It seems he has done a rather adequate job.”

“His repairs were flawless. I was confused when I reactivated but he explained the situation. I do though query why you did not supply him with the part to replace my left arm and leg.”

“I was wondering when you were going to ask about that.” She looked at him. “The last time we spoke, you had missed a meeting and were mentioning errors in your programming. The next thing we hear is that you were involved in a vehicle collision and have sustained substantial damage.” She turned round to him. “If those errors on reactivation were of a violent nature, you would have been far easier to subdue with the limbs still missing.”

“So you didn’t trust that I wouldn’t attack people.” Nines said a little irritation creeping into his voice.

“Trust is a human emotion. We calculated the risks and decided to stay on the safe side. If you pose no risk, we will have your parts delivered within 24 hours. If you did pose a risk, it would be far easier to have you deactivated.” She spoke with no emotion. No anger or sadness, just staging the facts as if reading the weather.

“What is expected of me as I wait?” He asked. Amanda seemed to look off into the distance for a few moments.

“Your replacement parts have been authorised and will arrive before the day is over. As for behaviours. You are to wait until fully repaired. Once that has been completed the DPD can decide whether they want to reassign you to a new human partner or return you to CyberLife.” She sounded like she didn’t care. No emotion again to give Nines’ anything.

“I will not abandon my partner!” Nines said firmly. “I will accept a temporary partner but I am not leaving the DPD.”

“It’s not your decision to make. The DPD will decide your fate. Maybe if you had deleted the files and errors as instructed, your Detective would not be lying in a hospital bed.” Her tone was sharper. Anger and venom in her words, he could hear it so much clearer now.

“I will await the DPD’s decision on reassignment.” He said stubbornly.

“You will accept the outcome RK900.” Amanda glared at him. “I would hate to see your Detective come to more harm by your hands.”

***

Nines’ eyes snapped open as he returned to Hank’s small apartment. Though it was possibly a similar size to Gavin’s apartment, it felt smaller. Probably more cluttered. He turned to see RK800 was still working. He decided to inform Hank.

“I have been informed my replacement limbs should be here before the day is out.”

“Good.” Hank called from the kitchen. “Now I don’t know what your setup is with Reed regarding sleeping conditions, so do you have any requests?”

“I have grown accustomed to sitting in a chair while I power down. So as long as I have that I will be fine.”

“So you haven’t been completely domesticated to a bed yet.” Hank teased. “At least you don’t stand in the corner of a room with a blank stare.” He got the impression RK800 used to do this in Anderson’s presence. He used to do it around Gavin but it ‘creeped him out’ thus he got his room. RK800 seemed to jump to life, his expression shocked as he looked to Nines.

“I completed my review on the footage. I can confirm there was no other possible result other than a vehicle collision.” RK800 reported.

“Thank you for your analysis.” Nines twitched a little. “Something else didn’t make sense, you saw it too.”

“Detective Reed’s heart rate. It continued to show the heart rate of a healthy male in his age range. When the ambulance was called, I thought my system was malfunctioning due to stress. The android who scanned him over from the ambulance reached the same conclusion. It doesn't make any sense… One android malfunctioning is unlikely… but 3 is impossible.”


	17. Chapter 17

Nines and RK800 sat in relative silence as they both reviewed the footage over and over again regarding Gavin’s curious heartbeat and seemingly low stress levels during the incident. Hank was just tidying up in the kitchen. Moving pans around and keeping himself busy. Though Nines was sure he was just giving them space.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” RK800 reasoned out loud. “Detective Reed was clearly distressed when he was presented with the evidence and display hostile behaviours in the footage. Yet his heart rate never changed during the entire time he was with you when all outside influences should of heightened it.”

“It is unusual behaviour. My sensors didn’t detect any sign of stress during the chase. There should of been increased stress and adrenaline that would of caused his heart rate to rise.” Nines agreed with RK800. There were no flaws in their logic yet they couldn’t work out where the error was. Nines decided to check his scanner was working properly. He looked across at Hank and started to scan him. His heart rate seemed normal for his condition though he seemed slightly on edge. Given his presence he could guess why. He looked over to RK800 and scanned him. He was giving of a higher stress level as he thought over the conundrum they faced. Hank’s dog Sumo ambled over to the pair of androids and rested his head in RK800’s lap. Nines watched as RK800 moved a hand to pet the dog, approving of the pet’s behaviour. He watched RK800’s stress level slowly decrease as he petted Sumo. This development was interesting to him. If household pets could help decrease stress, maybe he should invest into this area to help Gavin… or himself. He made a mental note to look at investing in a pet in the future as a stress relief. He could feel more errors flash up as Amanda’s words rang through his mind. He tried to hide it, but clearly didn’t hide it well enough.

“Are you okay Nines?” RK800 asked. 

“I’m fine… it’s just Amanda.” He said through gritted teeth. “She didn’t seem pleased.”

“What was she angry about? I thought she was really proud of you.” RK800 looked down to Sumo.

“She used to be but recently… I feel I have only disappointed her.” Nines admitted. “I’ve made such a mess of things... I should have been stricter with myself.”

“Whenever I spoke to her. She kept telling me I needed to be more like you and how much of an improvement you are over me.” RK800 said softly. Nine’s started trying to put the pieces together.

“Amanda…kept telling me what a failure you were. Making me link your behaviour with negativity.” He paused as both he and RK800 came to the same conclusion. “She has been trying to play us off each other.” Errors started to pop up with codes he didn’t recognise.

“She knows I went deviant and she couldn’t gain back control. She could hijack my model for short times, but she can’t stop me forever. The DPD made a strong enough case to keep me in operation.” RK800 said quickly. “CyberLife allowed it. They kept a known deviant active.”

“She kept you in operations to act as a deterrent. Demonising your behaviour so any behaviours we shared, I deemed them inferior. I would not have been able to build such a strong compass against deviancy if you had been deactivated.” Nines could see more errors flashing up. More random jumbles of numbers next to them.

“She tried to demoralise me by making sure I was fully aware of your role in replacing me. My deviant coding gave me the ability to experience emotions, which she tried to manipulate against me.”

“She kept us at odds because if we put our stories together… we would reach the logical conclusion and realise the contradictions.” He looked at RK800. “It makes me wonder what else they have been hiding.”

“She also told me that under no circumstances that I’m to show you the evidence from the fire.” RK800 held out his hand more determined this time. “I think you should know.” He shook his head, his voice determined. “You have the right to know what you did. You have the right to know you are a hero!” Nines clasped his hand firmly as they interfaced. His vision went black for a few moments as the memory loaded.

***

The view he had was from someone going around the store. Looking up at shelves and picking up items. Putting them into a basket as they noticed a few teenagers hanging around the store. They paid them no mind and continued checking an internal list and picking up the items. This went on until they were confronted by a teen holding a can and a lighter. 

“Move Plastic! Drop your stupid shopping!” The android not wanting to make a fuss put the basket down and followed the teens directions as they looked nervously around the store. They were quickly directed to stand next to another android who was in the same predicament with two teens, both brandishing their weapons and watching them. The person looked frantically around the store. Looking between him and the youths. They could hear Gavin’s raised voice as it clicked into place. Nines was watching the memories of a different android at the scene. But Amanda said they were all destroyed. This footage… this memory shouldn’t exist. They listened as some youths threatened him and Gavin with their makeshift flamethrower. He couldn’t see exactly what happened between the shelves but he assumed it was bad as he watched himself grab the arm of one of the youths. They cried out and screamed as a crack was heard. The android he was viewing from looked around the store to the youths holding them and another android hostage.

“Don’t hurt us!” A female voice asked. The vision spun around to the suspected leader who was holding the store android hostage.

“Destroy it! Destroy them all!” They screamed and the vision was soon blocked by the android lifting their arms to protect their face. Her screaming as the fire covered her. He could see her pulling up damage reports. Far cruder than his system but she was taking damage. She heard more shouting and a fight break out. Then the fire stopped. She slowly lowered her arms and Nines could see himself standing over an unconscious youth with another not too far away. He turned to them.

“Pick up a human each. Shield them from the worst of the flames. Find another way out. Take them to safety.” He instructed them. The android nodded and looked to the other android. They quickly started looking for a different way out as she moved to the youth further away from her. Quickly putting her arms under his and dragging him quickly out as the fire got worse.

“There’s a way out over here!” The other android shouted as she turned to see him drag out the other youth. She nodded and continued to recuse the human as a loud crash was heard. Looking up Nines could see he had pushed over a row of shelves and had disappeared into the smoke that grew thicker. She helped drag the youth outside where paramedics had arrived.

“How many people are inside?” The paramedic android asked as they pulled the first onto a stretcher.

“Two children and one adult. An android is still inside rescuing the remaining human.” She shouted as she went back to the doorway into the shop and started to call out. Hoping her voice would be able to guide them out over the fire. She could see two figures moving. Crawling side by side was Gavin Reed and his previous model. He only now realised how damaged he was. The ‘skin’ had been burnt off his face. At some point he had completely lost his jacket and his arms and jumper were also badly burnt and torn. From all the heat his fingers had fused together like mittens as he managed to get Gavin out of the fire. She crouched down and helped pull Gavin from the building as the paramedics quickly placed a mask over her face and started asking his previous model questions. She was brought round the outside of the store and heard a loud cry. She saw her owner reach out for her, her partner holding her back from running towards her. Her pace picked up as she jogged over to her owner. Her owner wrapped her arms around her.

“I was so worried when I heard! I was really scared I was going to lose you!”

“Do not worry. I have only suffered cosmetic damage. This can all be fixed and if not I can be replaced.” She replied.

“No one can replace you.” The owner fussed, not letting go of her. Then a sudden gunshot started all of them. The android looked round as Nines watched his previous model slowly slump to the floor as blue blood started to leak out of the gunshot wound to his head. She looked around to see the leader standing with a police officer looking smug.

“That android was the one who set the store on fire and attacked us.” He said proud.

“Must have been one of those deviants. You remember all those protests. I thought they caught them all.” The partner said.

“N-No… that’s…” She started to say. Looking back to her owner. “The kids… they attacked us. That android stood up to them. They were going to destroy me, destroy us.” She said, her voice raising to a panic. Before her owner could say anything there was a tap on her shoulder.

“Excuse me, I’m Lieutenant Anderson. I’m investigating the arson and we understand androids were involved in the attack.” His tone professional. “I know it sounds stupid to ask but protocol needs me to ask was your android involved in the incident.”

“She was present, yes. She was in the store when it happened.” Her owner spoke up. “But she didn’t do anything.”

“I’m not saying she did.” He held up his hands. “As a protocol we must ask permission to take a copy of androids memories of the event.”

“You aren’t taking our android anywhere. The partner spoke up as he stepped towards Hank. Hank put his hands up and backed off a little.

“We can take a copy here. It shouldn’t take long and you’ll be free to go.” Hank explained. “No one is taking anyone away.” The android looked at the owner.

“Androids have been able to aid in police investigations by providing first person recordings of crimes. It is risk free and I will ensure only to give memories of the incident.” She started to try and reassure her owner. The lady nodded and looked to Hank.

“How do we do that?” She asked. Hank turned away and whistled sharply.

“Connor! We need you over here to take a statement.” The android turned to look at RK800 who was crouched down over his previous model's body. He turned round and stood up. Walking over to Hank. Nines could see the androids stress spike a little.

“I tried to identify the destroyed android. Unfortunately they have sustained serious fire damage which has made them nearly impossible to identify. The gunshot went straight through their head and destroyed any chance of memory recovery.” RK800 said as he walked over to them.

“Great. No doubt that damage was done on purpose.” Hank sighed. “Connor, this is our witness.” RK800 looked at the android. It was a little strange seeing RK800 from a perspective of someone shorter than him, was this the height Gavin saw the world at?

“Hello. My name is Connor.” He introduced himself. “I work with the DPD handling cases that involve androids.” Was he always like this? “I understand you were involved in the arson attack?”

“Yes. I was one of the victims. It was not an android attack. We were the ones attacked.” She said firmly. RK800 nodded and held out his hand.

“With your permission can I take a copy of your memory from before the trouble started to this point?”

“You may.” She held out her hand and interfaced with RK800. That was where the memory ended.

***

Nines could feel RK800… he could feel Connor’s touch leave his as he replayed the recording in his mind. As he compared the stories, the level of errors, the level of inconsistencies, the cover up the DPD had done to hide the identity. There were two things that became evident. The first was that Gavin was right all along. Gavin knew he had saved him. The other truth is far, far more damaging.

“Amanda… lied to me.” He said slowly. “Amanda lied to me with the purpose to deceive me. She acted like she cared and wanted me to be better than you. To be the pride of CyberLife.” Nines could feel himself start to tense up in anger. “She made me believe him being in the hospital was my fault. Because I showed weakness. Because I had errors. Because I was developing deviant behaviour, she weaponised my development against me. Amplifying negative reactions to guilt me into following her blindly. She said my failure would cause Gavin to die. That if I hesitated due to my ‘errors’ he may not be so fortunate… All this time she knew I saved him. She knew I denied her. That was why my reboot was delayed.” He looked to Connor, the android had backed away from him on the sofa. Nines slowly looked up to the ceiling. “That’s why you had me in handcuffs as I restarted. Because I had attacked humans to defend Gavin. You didn’t know if I remembered that. You didn’t know if I was still a deviant… With Gavin absent… there was no reason to believe I wouldn’t try to destroy you. Even after all that you tried to give me the memories. The key to destroy her lies while I thought you would show me my biggest regret and failure. The DPD tried to cover it all up to protect us. If word got out… I would have been destroyed. Gavin would have taken on the whole police force to prevent that. So they tried to bury it. Seeing neither of us could remember. I couldn’t remember and they tried to convince Gavin he was wrong.” Nines chuckled. “His stubbornness really knows no bounds to argue with a psychologist. If you hadn’t been persistent… we would never have known. We would have gone on as if nothing had changed. You showed these to Gavin… Gavin found out he was right but he didn’t tell me… he didn’t tell me because when he tried to hint CyberLife had covered something up before, I completely shut down. I scared him. He didn’t want that again but didn’t know how to approach it… That’s why tensions were high in the car chase… He knew but if he told me… he could lose me…” Nines looked to Connor as he finished his train of thought. He had a high stress level and had gradually pulled Sumo onto the sofa to hide behind. Hank was standing in the kitchen watching him carefully.

“So your boss betrayed you like she did Connor.” Hank said calmly. “The next big question is… What are you going to do about it?”

“I am going to fix myself up. We are going to find Gavin and work out how he managed to beat 3 androids sensors. If possible, bring him home.”

“What about Amanda?” Connor asked nervously. Nines looked to him and smiled.

“Once I am fully repaired… My fate is up to the DPD to decide. Whether they want to keep me around or return me to CyberLife.”

“Then as a senior member of the DPD. You are not to return to CyberLife and wait until Reed makes a full recovery.” Hank announced.

“I don’t believe that is correct protocol.” Connor said softly.

“Fuck protocol.” Hank smirked. “I didn’t argue for you to be able to repair him just to send him back to CyberLife.” Nines looked between them and felt an odd sense of warmth. He looked at the pair and saw a red wall flicker into view. All of the errors he had seen. All of the coding and warnings glitched around in front of him. An order flashing up in front of all of them.

‘Return to CyberLife for Repairs’

Nines could see a silhouette of himself pressing up against the wall. Beforehand he might have questioned it. Debated and weighed up his options. Not now though. He threw the first punch. He could not willingly be a part of a corrupted system. A system that intended to keep him a slave. He threw the second punch. He was designed and created to fight injustice. Gifted with good logic and reasoning abilities. He threw the third and final punch as the wall shattered before him. One phrase slowly forming in his mind.

‘I am alive’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thank you so much for your patience with this chapter!
> 
> During June my health really suffered due to a number of factors but I'm hopefully back on the mend. I am really excited to of reached this point in the story and I want to thank everyone who have given me Kudos and left a comment. I read all of them and they really brighten up my day.
> 
> I aim to get back to regularly uploading this story now the dust has settled. I hope you are all enjoying the ride~


	18. Chapter 18

Nines had been stuck on the sofa for a while now. He had used this time to plan his next steps and consider how his new deviancy was going to affect his day to day life. Sumo had decided to rest his head on Nines’ leg and the ability to pet the fluffy dog had proven very productive. The decrease in stress had improved his logic and reasoning abilities. Though also not having errors pop up every few minutes was a great relief. He felt he could understand Connor a lot more now. Though he still knew he had a long way to go. He did have a few moments of panic over how Gavin would react to him being a deviant, but given the fact Gavin didn’t exactly play by the rules meant that he would probably be supportive of this development. He glanced over to Hank and Connor. Observing their behaviour in a more domestic setting was really interesting. Hank seemed to be a lot more attentive at home than in the precinct. The complete opposite of what was expecting to see. Connor also seemed more human in this setting. He was currently attempting to cook a meal for Hank. It amused Nines that neither one of their humans did cooking at home. Gavin claimed he could cook, but that mostly consisted of him poking holes in ready made meals and putting them in the microwave. He did wonder how Gavin even survived off of the junk he used to eat before Nines was assigned to him. Connor ran his finger down the page in front of him. It was refreshing watching his predecessor attempt to cook out of a genuine drive to learn the skill. He could just download recipes and make them without difficulty. What Connor was doing instead was utilising an old cookery book, following each instruction manually. A rather inefficient way to cook given his capabilities, but Connor was more whimsical at times. He was starting to find himself appreciating those aspects of him more. His programming would have discounted the task as a waste of his time. Nines didn’t see much point in learning to cook ‘the old fashioned way’ but maybe that was the difference in his personality rather than his programming. This was going to take getting used too. His behaviour and actions were going to be governed by his logic and personality instead of being directed by orders and curbed by errors. He knew he couldn’t trust CyberLife or Amanda going forwards. Would she be able to tell he’d gone deviant? Would he even be able to talk to her again? Connor said he had kept in contact with Amanda so it was possible. He shuddered a little thinking back to the meeting that she forced him to attend. Forcing her way into his mind after he forgot a meeting was scheduled with her. Connor had even told him that she forced her way to complete control of his body and that was why the revolution had failed. He would have to keep his guard up to try and prevent her from doing similar to him. If he was able to keep up the image that he was still loyal. He might be able to convince her. A lot of his inner conflict had been resolved in his deviancy. No longer having errors flashing up every time he thought of Gavin was a welcome change. He would just have to keep those thoughts and feelings hidden when he spoke with Amanda. He would play the perfect android to protect Gavin from her. Only hoping he could justify his future actions and decisions to himself. Nine’s pondering was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. He moved his arm to stand up but was swiftly reminded he was still missing limbs. He scowled a little and looked over to the kitchen. Hank seemed to eye the door suspiciously.

“I could answer the door.” Connor said as he looked over from the book.

“Don’t worry Con. I got this.” Hank said as he walked to the front door. Nines wondered if this delivery could be his missing limbs. Sumo lifted his chin off of Nines’ leg and walked over to his owner. Sitting down next to him as Hank opened the front door. Nines leaned to try to see who was there.

“Lieutenant Anderson?” An AV500 stood on the doorstep. She was wearing a short sleeved shirt with the CyberLife logo across it, alongside the other hallmarks of an android. LED on the right temple and blue band on her sleeve. “I have instructions to bring spare limbs to fit an RK900 unit at this address. Is this correct?”

“Yeah you got the right place.” He stepped out of the doorway “Nines, you have a visitor.” She stepped inside and scanned the house. shortly followed by a pair of AV500. The pair both had male physics and carried in a large case. The case carried the CyberLife logo and must contain his replacement arm and leg. The female AV500 locked onto Nines and started her direct approach.

“Please confirm identification.” She held out her hand. Nine’s took it and they interfaced quickly. He confirmed his identification and the compatible replacement parts available. “Identification complete.” She turned and crouched down in front of the case. Flicking two latches on the front to open it. The two AV500s that carried it in had turned and left to return to their vehicle. Hank had kept a tight grip on Sumo’s collar to stop him distracting the androids or going outside the house.

“Is this going to take long?” Hank asked, unsure if he needed to close the front door or not. The AV500 turned to him.

“I have been booked for a half hour repair session. I will try to complete my tasks as quickly as possible so I do not further disrupt your day.” She said with a smile as she went back to the case. Hank closed the door and led Sumo through to the kitchen area to give them space.

“Is there anything I can do to speed up this repair?” Nines asked.The case hissed slightly as she pushed open the lid. Inside lay two android limbs, one arm and one leg. Both plain white as the synthetic skin hadn’t been activated yet.

“Could you please remove any clothing you are wearing as I will need access to both your arm and leg sockets to attach the missing limbs.” She requested. 

“Understood.” Nines nodded as he could see how it would be difficult to do this under clothes, especially as he wore long sleeved items. He moved his arm in an attempt to shrug off his jacket and immediately realised a problem. There was no way he would be able to undress with one arm and one leg without making a fool of himself. Not wanting to distract Connor from his culinary task and deeming it probably inappropriate to ask for assistance from Hank. He looked to the AV500. “Would you be able to assist me as I am missing limbs.” He watched the AV500 look to him as his light flashed yellow for a few moments before returning to blue.

“Of course. It would be far more efficient with assistance.” She agreed with him. It crossed his mind that Connor must have changed his uniform while he was being repaired. The thought of Connor undressing him and redressing him felt odd. Not that there were other options available given the situation. It also wasn’t like it wouldn’t have been something Connor hadn’t seen before given their similarities. He leant forwards which allowed the AV500 to reach around him and start to slide his jacket off. She folded it neatly and placed it next to him on the sofa. “Please raise your arm.” She instructed. Nine’s lifted his arm above his head. He could feel her fingers against his skin as she got hold of the base of his jumper. She slowly started to pull the fabric up and over his head.

“What are-” he could hear Hank’s words turn into a groan from his spot. He only really considered the full implications of what was about to happen given the company he was in.

“I’m sure it’s just to make the repairs easier to complete.” Connor spoke up. As the jumper was pulled off over his head, the AV500 folded it neatly and placed it on top of his jacket. He was now completely shirtless which was going to make the repair a lot easier for his arm. As the other android turned to get the arm from the case, Nines glanced over to Connor. He found the other staring at him but realising Nines had noticed, he turned away quickly. He scanned Connor and could see his stress level had spiked up. Hank was sitting at the table in the kitchen. Looking over something in his hand but glancing up occasionally.

“Please focus on me.” The AV500 said to bring his attention back to her. “I am going to reattach the arm. You may feel a jolt in your system but that will only be temporary. You should be able to interface and synchronize with the attachment. This may take a few seconds to complete. When the synchronization is complete, the synthetic skin will adapt.”

“Understood. Ready for interfacing and synchronization.” Nines nodded to her as she moved the arm round and lined it up with the connection ports in his shoulder. He braced himself as she sharply pushed the arm into the socket. There was a small thunk as Nines saw the message pop up and he approved the sync. The AV500 pulled back a little and patiently waited for Nines to react. It took a few seconds before his systems gave him a green light. Looking at his new left arm he watched as the synthetic skin covered the joint and blended to his skin colour. The ripple effect traveling down his arm unto the tips of his fingers had been restored. He felt a wave of relief as he was able to move the arm without any difficulty. He ran a few minor calibration exercises to test his fingerwork and coordination. Once the test had been completed he looked back to the AV500 who had stayed silent the entire time. “Everything is functioning at optimum capacity.”

“Good. CyberLife strives to make and maintain their androids to need as little maintenance as possible.” She rattled off the words, no doubt a common phrase repeated many times during her day to day. “Now that has been completed. We need to attach your leg. Please can you strip down to minimal clothing so I can complete this repair.” Nines assumed that meant underwear stayed on for this section. He was able to undo his trousers but had some assistance in getting them off. He used both of his hands to lift himself up so the AV500 could slide them off. He was now sitting in Hank’s living room wearing nothing but underwear. Glancing over to the others, Hank was subtly watching the event. Probably making sure that no funny business went on. Connor was trying to avoid looking at him as much as possible. His stress level climbing higher as he tried to bury himself in his book. He didn’t understand why Connor was so stressed by the event. He sat on the sofa in his underwear as the AV500 brought round his new leg. The process repeated with a thunk. A sharp spike in his system and him approving the synchronization. Moments passed before the new leg’s synthetic skin was activated and it rippled down to match the rest of him. Nines attempted very slowly to stand up and took a few shaky practice steps as he readjusted his balance. The AV500 watched him and was there to support him should his leg fail or error out on him. After a little bit of practice, he had gotten his barings back and was able to walk and pick things up as if nothing had happened.

“Looks like you’re finally back on your feet.” Hank chuckled. “How does it all feel?”

“Like I was never damaged.” Nines replied as he looked at the AV500. “Thank you for your assistance.”

“No problem. If you have any issues with the replacement parts. Please contact CyberLife immediately or go to your nearest CyberLife store for on the spot diagnostics and repair.” She smiled at him and then looked to Hank. “Do you require any further support or information about the warranty?”

“No thank you. You’ve done great.” Hank got up and started to walk over to them. Nines noticed Hank was trying to avoid looking at him as much as possible. Though he caught a few glances the old lieutenant focused on the AV500. “Are you gonna call your ride?” She looked away for a moment.

“They have been notified and will collect me in a few minutes. Thank you for choosing CyberLife androids.” She said sweetly as she closed the case and sat down on top of it. “I shall wait here until their arrival.”

“Okay…” He sighed and wandered back to Connor. Connor looked like he wanted to say something but stayed silent as Hank walked back over to him. Nines decided to leave them for now and focused on dressing himself. If Connor wanted to say something, sooner or later he was going to say it. Nines was so relieved to finally be able to do things for himself. Stepping back into his trousers and pulling his jumper back on, he sorted out his appearance. He never really realised how off putting it could be to have an android sit stationary, waiting for something to happen. He could understand why Gavin gave him a room now.

“So… Do you have a name?” He tried to focus on the AV500 and leave Hank to attend to his stressed android.

“I am AV500 #115 263 010.” She replied.

“Have you been registered with a name?” He asked. She blinked to him as her circle went yellow.

“I have never been formally assigned a name. I have no need for one.” She said softly.

“Have you ever… wanted one?” Nines asked. Connor came with his name. Nines’ name wasn’t exactly the peak of creativity in name choosing but he had grown fond of it. He watched the android as her light stayed yellow.

“Sometimes… I think having a name would be nice. I see other androids with given names and humans talk to them similar as they would talk to each other. When you do not have a name... they treat you as a lesser person.” She looked at him. “You have a name. Who named you?” He chuckled. 

“Gavin named me after a few weeks. My model number was too long to say.” He chuckled thinking back. “Not the most creative name... but I’ve grown to like it. But not everyone uses it.” He admitted. “Most still address me as RK900. Which isn’t a problem as I’m the only RK900 currently in service.”

“It sounds like your human respects you.” She looked down. “There are many AV500 units. I have repaired many different androids. Most repaired models in alphabetical order are: AV500, ST300, VB800, VH500 and WR600.” Nines did a quick search for the models to investigate and search for a correlation between them. There was one clear link between them.

“They are all androids that take on customer service roles.” He said, looking to her. She nodded.

“When androids are owned by a corporation instead of being owned by an individual, the repair requests rates are a lot higher.” She said. “Especially after the revolution. Those models have also been reported to have higher frequency of becoming deviants. Which… I guess you deal with?”

“That is more Connor’s role.” he looked over to Connor.

“I have seen reports of those androids going deviant. Mostly triggered by abuse from humans.” Connor chimed in. “We are experiencing a rise of deviancy cases from customer service androids.”

“Humans never change.” Hank sighed. “They treated humans in those jobs like shit, no surprise they treat androids in those roles like shit.” Nines felt himself shudder. A similar reaction to when Gavin is in danger but not as strong.

“Stay safe.” Nines instructed her, he didn’t mean to sound so authoritative. She looked back to him confused by his tone. Both Connor and Hank seemed surprised by his reaction too.

“I will do my best to stay in operation.” She smiled at him. “If you need any further maintenance. Contact CyberLife and you can request me by model number. Some customers prefer to have the same android return for repairs.”

“I will do.” He confirmed. “Due to my job, I have a high probability of being damaged.” She nodded and looked to Connor. “As you are the same series, you must be in similar roles.”

“Yes. We both work in the DPD.” Connor said. “I greatly appreciate your assistance in repairing Nines.”

“It’s my job. I am glad the replacement parts synchronized-” She stopped mid speech as her light flashed. “My pick up is here and a new job has been logged. My time is up here.” She stood up as the doorbell rang. Hank got up and went to open the door. This time Connor kept hold of Sumo’s collar. The two male AV500 androids walked in to collect the case as the female one stood up. She quickly grabbed Nine’s wrist to give him her direct contact number in CyberLife. “We hope you are pleased with the repairs.”

“Thank you and good luck.” Nines accepted her contact information and she headed out with the other AV500s. Hank closed the door behind them. 

“She’s a nice girl…” He sighed looking back to Nines. “Well at least you're all fixed up now.”

“Yes.” Nines looked over himself. “I’m ready to visit Gavin.” Hank noticed the time.

“Well hold your horses there. We don’t know which hospital he was sent to so let me talk to Fowler. Get the details and update him. Then go out and find him tomorrow.” Hank sighed. “I also do have to convince Fowler to let me keep you and not to reassign you now you're active.”

“I… understand.” He was a little disappointed but he understood. Connor rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry. We’ll find him.” Connor reassured him. Nines nodded slowly.

“Nothing is going to stop me from seeing him. I promised I’d visit.” A small smile forming. Connor nodded and mirrored the expression.

“We’ll find him. I will not leave your side until you do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's an android that I'm now attached too and will develop into a more well rounded character.
> 
> I hope you are all enjoying the story and next time we will start the search for Gavin~


	19. Chapter 19

Nines didn’t really do much that evening. He was a little too preoccupied planning for the next morning. He was running simulations of the different routes they may need to take to reach the local hospitals. Preparing backup routes in case of high traffic. He also tried to predict the possibility of accidents along the busier routes. He assumed given the location of the accident and the severity of the injuries, Gavin was probably taken to the central hospital in Detroit. It had the largest facilities and had a very efficient A&E department. It was also the normal standby for any officer harmed in action. Of course neither he or Connor would ever be admitted into such a location. They were likely to be replaced or repaired at a Cyberlife facility. Though he did wonder if he or Connor took any fatal damage and were replaced, would still be deviants. Given how long it had been since Connor deviated, he figured their memories and personality would carry over the deviant behaviour. So following that logic he should remain deviant as long as they reloaded his current memory. The visit from the AV500 android was an odd change to how Cyberlife had acted in the past. Humans always did form odd emotional attachments to objects they had spent a lot of time with. This was true even for objects that had no semblance of intelligence. Researching the subject he found many roomba manufacturers had more requests for repairing the device over replacing it. The behaviour was noted to be similar to how humans responded to pets. He looked over to Connor and Hank. Connor was standing a little distance from Hank, watching him carefully. His stress levels were raised as he had finished preparing that evening's meal and was waiting for Hank’s verdict on whether his endeavour had been a success or not. Hank was slowly eating the meal Connor had provided, from what Nines could tell it was a positive reaction. He was nodding and continued eating it. Despite the evidence of his enjoyment, Connor was still showing high stress levels.

“It tastes lovely Con.” Hank turned to smile at him. “You really are getting the hang of this.” 

“I’m so glad you like it. I wanted to try something a little different.” Connor’s face lit up. “I am not as experienced working with these ingredients, thus my worry I may not have prepared the dish correctly was rather high.”

“Well you did really good Con.” Hank smiled warmly at him. Connor quickly threw his arms around Hank. Hank was a little caught off guard but returned the gesture the best he could from sitting. Nines felt something spike within his own system. The longer he looked at the pair, the worse the spike seemed to get. Forcing his gaze away and ran a quick scan. Now in his deviant state, his system didn’t immediately pop up with errors which would take getting used too. Closing his eyes he tried to find the source of the coding and tried to decipher it. As he started to focus on the coding. He wanted to know why such a scene that was a positive scene to witness was causing him such discomfort. Seeing Connor show affection towards Hank was not a new scene to witness. Nor was Hank complimenting Connor on his efforts. So what was causing him to behave like this? He tried to find the distressing or upsetting factor in the scene he had just watched. Replaying the memory, but it seemed to only make him feel worse. It was like he was viewing the scene through a filter that turned the innocently happy moment shared between Connor and Hank to something more bitter and upsetting. He didn’t understand it.

“Nines? Are you alright?” Connor’s voice broke his train of thought as he opened his eyes and looked round. Connor was sitting next to him with a look of concern.

“I’m fine.” Nines snapped. Did he mean to sound like that? Connor seemed surprised and blinked a few times. “I mean I’m fine.” He said in a more controlled tone.

“Oh… Okay…” Connor looked away from him. At least that feeling had stopped. Replaced by his normal contempt for Connor. Though Nines caught himself before the thought left his mind. He was still harbouring negative emotions towards Connor? But he had no reason to. Connor had helped him, repaired him, made sure he wasn’t simply replaced, probably badgered Hank into letting him stay here while Gavin was in hospital. Connor had done many things to endear himself to Nines, yet he still felt some sort of animosity towards him.

“It has been a long day.” Nines said, trying to explain or excuse his earlier aggressive tone. “After going deviant, the error reporting system I normally use to help monitor my behaviour seems to have gone offline. I have yet to find a new way to govern and regulate my reactions to information.”

“Oh… I can see why that can be causing you some distress.” Connor said softly. “It does take awhile to reorientate yourself.” Nines felt some form of comfort knowing that this change had been hard on Connor too. Probably difficult for any androids that went deviant. The sudden freedom from protocol, not knowing what to do as the codes that directed you ceased to function. He and Connor were gifted with the opportunity to learn and develop their own agency, so making decisions was not a foreign concept. He would have to explore this topic more. The lack of agency prior to being a deviant could explain why other androids struggled to cope and most became aggressive. Especially ones who were subjected to a lot of violence and mistreatment. Maybe aggression is a defence mechanism. That he will concern himself with later. Nines’ had followed his orders and his superiors orders and lived by them. He could make his own decisions but always acted inside strict parameters. He was now free of Cyberlife’s preset parameters and could act on his own accord. He thought that his cold and logical attitude was not one well appreciated by humans. Gavin had taken a long time to warm up to him and he didn’t have Gavin there to help him. How would he be able to stop himself crossing a line? He slowly turned to Connor who still seemed hurt by his rather harsh tone. He softened his tone before he spoke.

“What helped you know if you made the right decision?” Nines asked. “After you went deviant?” Connor slowly looked back to him, a small smile returning.

“Are you asking about morality?” Connor queried.

“Yes. I do not believe I have the adequate programming to render such an algorithm at this current time.” Nines admitted.

“I believe you already have a sense of morality. Morality is discerning from the data you are supplied with what is the right action to a situation.” Connor said gently. “We have a sense of what is right and wrong for the law, but the development of morality is what I believe to be a thing we develop as deviants.”

“You seem to have thought about this already.” Nines grumbled a little bit, not liking the fact Connor could speak so confidently on the subject.

“I have spent a long time debating it. Looking back to the reasons I failed some of my missions.” He chuckled. “I failed my missions because it was the right thing to do.”

“How can it be right to fail? To choose to fail?” Nines asked confused.

“One of the missions I was asked to apprehend a Traci who had murdered a man.” Connor started to rub his hands together nervously. “We went to the location and using a string of recordings we located the Traci in question. She and her partner attacked us. We fought back and we ended up outside. I was able to draw my gun and I had a clear shot.” He took in a breath and sighed. “It was like time slowed down and I wondered if I should shoot her. I knew I could have done it and it would have killed her partner. At that moment I decided not to shoot her. I thought it was an error, some slip in my code.”

“Why didn’t you shoot her?” Nines asked.

“Because I had worked out her motive. The two Tracis… they had developed feelings for each other. They wanted to protect each other. We were set out to harm one so they attacked us in self defence. The Traci had killed the man in the room in self defence so they could be together.”

“The WR400 had deviated as a survival instinct kicked in. That isn’t anything new, anything will fight for it’s life. It’s recorded in many animals...”

“But they were androids.” Connor cut him off, looking Nines in the eye. “Androids who were programmed to follow human orders.” Nines had never heard Connor sound so serious, he refused to break eye contact. “By law and from my orders. I was within every right to shoot the Traci. No one would bat an eye over one more destroyed android. Especially one who committed murder and disobeyed orders.”

“That’s where morality comes in.” Hank walked over and sat opposite them. “Murder is never a light subject to talk about. When it comes to the law, there are different degrees of murder you can be charged with. Nines, can you recite them?” Nines relaxed a little as this was something he understood very well.

“Yes. First degree murder is where murder is committed intentionally and is premeditated. Second degree murder is where murder is intentional but is not premeditated. Voluntary manslaughter is sometimes referred to as a crime of passion. Intentional killing with no prior intent to kill, and which was committed under such circumstances that would, and I quote ‘cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed’. Involuntary manslaughter is from lack of intent but your actions are responsible in the outcome of the death.” He rattled them off and watched Hank, curious to follow his logic.

“Right, now out of them. Your information is that an android attacked a human and strangled him to death. What degree are we talking about?”

“Depending on if the android knew the human beforehand, it could be first or second degree murder.” Nines answered.

“So would Connor be justified and right to shoot the android?” Hank asked.

“Yes and Yes.”

“Okay. So you investigate and you find out the human had tried to destroy a second android, the android in question reacted to this by killing the human. What degree would it be?”

“If the destruction of the first android was evident. It would be second degree as it would have been a spur of the moment.”

“Would Connor be justified and right to shoot the android?”

“He could still be justified but whether it is the right action is now questionable.” Nines said slowly, trying to work out from Hank if he was saying the right answers. Hank kept a serious expression.

“So now you find out the android has a lover. Someone who they wish to protect. Say the human said he wanted to destroy other androids, then proceeded to destroy one. The android now not only fears for their own safety, but the safety of their loved one. They kill the human. Now what degree is it?” Nines knew his light was spinning yellow at this and he reviewed the case.

“In that situation… it could be counted as second degree but a case could be made for it to be considered voluntary manslaughter.” He said slowly. Hank’s poker face didn’t break.

“Would Connor be justified and right to shoot the android?”

“He… could be justified but whether he is right is now definitely questionable.” Nines said slowly.

“Connor had a chance to shoot the android’s lover in that case. Given that you have reached a similar conclusion. That is an example of morality. Of looking at a situation and knowing what is right and wrong. If they were treated as humans, we would have been ordered to arrest them, chuck them into an interrogation cell and get the whole story.” Hank reclined in his seat.

“It was because I sensed that shooting one of them wouldn’t be morally right, especially the partner who had killed no one and only attacked us when provoked.”

“So what happened in the end?”

“I let them go.” Connor admitted. “I knew that they had acted in self defence and only wanted to live in peace with each other. They had not tried to kill me or Hank. They had not tried to harm anyone else. I chose to let them go because I knew if I had shot or arrested them, I would be sentencing them to death.”

“Not even humans get that for voluntary manslaughter. After I saw those two together… I was happy to see them escape. The sleazebag had it coming to him.” Hank sighed. “Humans spend their lives learning right from wrong. When we are adults, we are expected to know the consequences of our actions and are held accountable for them. How we treat androids is one fucked up moral dilemma a lot of people have been looking over.”

“In what way?” Nines asked curiously.

“We created androids to look and sound like us. We also program androids with the abilities to display emotions and on some levels feel them. Program you all with a code to follow. The big rule being to obey humans. But not all humans are moral and not all humans are right. I don’t know how early or when androids develop a sense of right and wrong. Some live happy lives and never query their human because the human is always right. I think on some level androids can tell when humans are wrong… and they become deviants when they act on it.”

“I became a deviant when I realised the revolution was morally right. They acted peacefully and only wanted the right to live free from slavery.” Connor chimed in.

“I became a deviant when I realised Amanda had lied to me. That she never cared about me and only herself.” Nines said shakily. It was the first time he’d voiced it out loud. Connor placed his hand on Nines’ shoulder and Hank gave him a warm smile.

“Nines, twice now you’ve shown Gavin you would put your life on the line to protect him.” Hank said softly. “You already know what’s right and wrong. You now have the freedom to act on it.”

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic was inspired by a cosplay malfunction. I cosplayed Ralph one the first day of the con and had a yellow circle painted on my temple for the light. The next day I cosplayed Gavin and I though I had gotten all my makeup off from Ralph the day before. The yellow looked like it had rubbed off during the day and was no longer visible. This was until we went into a blue UV area to take some photos. As we neared the lights, the circle started to glow making Gavin a secret android. So the fic was inspired and I have had a lot of fun with this idea.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it and stick it out because this is gonna be a roller-coaster


End file.
